IMOR 



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lES A. HARDIE, 
U. S. Army. 




LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

NTED BY 



PRESENTI 



UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 




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AT THE AGE OP FORTY-THREE. 



MEMOIR 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE, 



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UNMTHU STATES ARMY 



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DEDICATION. 

To the children of him whose merits and services are 
herein briefly commemorated, this little volume is affec- 
tionately inscribed by his and their friend, 

The Author. 
Washington, D. C, 

January,\\^ll . 



INTRODUCTION. 

The subject of this memoir belongs to that chiss of 
men wliose spheres of action have been sufficiently large 
and conspicuous to make the narration of their lives and 
characters both interesting and useful to those who have 
known and observed them in life, however little they may 
have engaged the attention of the world at large. The 
most cursory perusal of the following pages will show that 
the life they attempt in some measure to portray was one 
of activity, and public in its character and usefulness. A 
more attentive reading will show that it was also the life 
of a sincere, devoted, and unselfish man, true to his God, 
his country, and his race. The narrative of such a life, 
however briefly and imperfectly told, cannot do harm and 
is certain to do good. 

Those who scan these pages with unwonted care will be 
more apt to notice what is absent from them than what they 
contain. To such is due the explanation that the work was 
undertaken, as a token of gratitude and affection, without 
time to collect more ample material, or ability to adorn 
it with literary graces. 

The tone of this little volume is eulogistic, but that 
scarcely requires explanation. The tale of a life open and 
full of integrity, when written by a friendly hand for the 



Vr INTRODUCTION. 

perusal of frieDclly eyes, is not to he broken by adverse re- 
flections, or suggestions of possible flaws in either character 
or attainments. Such critical methods belong to the higher 
plane of history. 



Adjutant Generai/s Office, 

Washington, January 8, 1877. 

Military History of James A. Hardie, of the United 
States Army, as shown by the files of this office. 

Was a cadet at the United States Military Academy, 
from September 1, 1889, to July 1, 1848, when he was 
graduated and promoted in the Army to Brevet Second 
Lieutenant, First Artillery, July 1, 1848. 

His subsequent commissions and appointments were as 
follows : 

Second Lieutenant, Third Artillery 28 May, 1846. 

First Lieutenant, Third Artillery 3 March, 1847. 

Captain, Third Artillery .5 October, 1857. 

Transferred to Fifth Artillery 15 May, 1861. 

Major and Assistant Adjutant General 19 February, 1863. 

Colonel and Inspector General 24 March, 1864. 

Major, First N. Y. Vol's 1 Aug;ust, 1846, to October 26, 1848. 

Lt. Col., and Add'l A. D. C. _-28 Sept., 1861, to 24 March, 1864. 
Brig. Gen'l of Volunteers 29 Nov., 1862, to 22 Jan., 1863. 

He was bre vetted Brigadier General, United States Army, 
March 3, 1865, for diligent and faithful services, and Major 
General, United States Array, March 18, 1865, for faithful, 
meritorious and distinguished services in the Inspector 
General's Department. 

Service. — He joined his regiment September 80, 1843, 
and served therewith in garrison at Hancock Barracks, 
Houlton, Maine, to August 23, 1844; on detached service 
at United States Military Academy, as Assistant Professor 



VI ri INTRODUCTION. 

of Geography, History, and Ethics, to August lo, 1(S46 ; in 
the war with Mexico as Major First New York Volunteers, 
at San Francisco, California, to Oatober 2(), 1848 ; on de- 
tached service in garrison at San Francisco, California, to 
March 30, 1849 ; an route to join his regiment and on leave 
of absence to November 8, 1849 ; with regimeu-t in garrison 
at Fort Trumbull, Connecticut, to June, 1850 ; at Jefferson 
Barracks, Missouri, to October, 1851 ; as adjutant of the 
regiment at Fort Adams, Rhode Island, to Djcember 7, 
1853 ; on detached service as aide-de-camp to Brevet Brig- 
adier General Wool, Headquarters Department of the 
East, Baltimore, Maryland, to January, 1854, and Head- 
quarters Department of the Pacific to May 3, 1855; with 
regiment at Benicia Barracks, California, as adjutant, to 
April, 1858 ; at San Bernardino, California, to June 7, 
1858 ; on frontier duty in the Spokan expedition, to Oc- 
tober, 1858, being engaged in the battle of Four Lakes, 
Washington Territory, Ssptember 1, 1858, and in the com- 
bat of Spokan Plains, September 5, 1858 ; at Forts Van- 
couver and Cascades, Washington Territory, and F^rt 
Point, California, to July, 1861 ; as aide-de-camp to Gen- 
eral McClellan, from September 3, 1861, to March 10, 
1862; as acting assistant adjutant-general of the Army of 
the Potomac during the Virginia Peninsular campaign, to 
August, 1862; in the Maryland campaign, September to 
November, 1862; and in the Rappahannock campaign, 
December, 1862, to January, 1863, being on the staff of 
Major General Burnside, in the battle of Fredericksburg, 



INTRODUCTION. IX 

December 18, 18(32 ; as judge advocate general of the 
Army of the Potomac, January 29, to March 20, 1863 ; 
on special duty in the War Department to August 2, 1866 ; 
and in charge of the Inspector General's Office, at Wash- 
ington, March 24, 1864, to November 1, 1865 ; as member 
of Board of Inspection of arms and munitions in the 
arsenals and forts of the United States, August 2, 1866, to 
August 15, 1867 ; Inspector General at Headquarters of the 
Army to June 16, 1868 ; President of the Board of Claims 
to May 17, 1869 ; Inspector General of the Military Divi- 
sion of the Missouri to October 14, 1872; also member of 
Commission to act on claims of the State of Kansas for 
moneys expended in raising and equipping troops to aid in 
suppressing the rebellion ; on inspection duty under the 
orders of the Secretary of War, and General of the Army 
to May 29, 1876 ; assistant in the Inspector General's 
Office, at Headquarters of the Army, to date of death, De- 
cember 14, 1876. 

Thomas M. Vincent, 
Assistant Adjutant General. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

Page. 
Chapter I. 

Early Years 1 

Chapter II. 
Cadet Life at We.st Point 7 

Chapter III. 
California Service during Mexican War_ 11 

Chapter IV. 

Garrison Life after the War 18 

Chapter V. 

Expedition against Spokan Indians 23 

Chapter VI. 

Service with Army of the Potomac 29 

Chapter VII. 

Service in the War Department 37 

Chapter VIII. 

Service in Inspector General's Department 43 

Chapter IX. 

Death and Funeral Ceremonies .51 

Chapter X. 
Personal Traits and Characteristics 57 



JAMBS ALLBN HARDIi; 



CHAPTER I. 



EARLY YEARS. 

The subject of this memoir was born in the city of New 
York, May 5, 1828, and was the eldest of eight cliildren, of 
whom four survive. His father, Allen W. Hardie, was a 
real estate broker at New York and Albany, and a man of 
wealth, intelligence and culture. His mother, Caroline Cox ^ 
belonged to a respectable family of Quaker descent, and 
possessed those domestic virtues that so generally charac- 
terize the members of that denomination. The boy was 
named James after his father's uncle, James Hardie, a pro- 
fessor in Columbia College, New York, and writer of some 
repute upon classical and historical subjects, and Allen after 
his own father. The Hardie family was of Scotch extra- 
tion, as the name itself indicates, but had bean long settled 
in America, and James had both opportunity and occasion, 
in his still youthful days, to refer to the services rendered 
in two wars with England by his ancestry. 

The family residence was at Montrose, on the Hudson, 
and the earliest years of James were surrounded by those 
advantages that wealth, taste, and judgment afford to the 



2 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

growiug mind, but as he was by iialure iiitelleetiuil and 
studious, he needed not to be driven, but only guided. He 
neglected the usual amusements and o<"eupations of boys 
for his books, and like many another precocious scholar, 
received both scolding and warning from his anxious mother 
because of his morbid propensity to study. 

At the age of four years, James was able to read, and 
when eight years old, was placed in charge of a tutor, a 
talented and pious young man, studying for the ministry. 
The relations between the two were so affectionate as well 
as advantageous to the pupil, that when the tutor went to 
Pittsburgh to fill an instructor's place in the Western Col- 
legiate Institute under the Rev. Dr. Lacey, it was arranged 
that young Hardie should accompany him, and remain in 
his immediate charge in addition to being regularly entered 
as a pupil of the institute. James was then just past ten, 
and the letter is still preserved in which he d, scribes to his 
father, in a handwriting like copper-plate, and with a 
gravity and perfection of style far beyond his years, his 
journey from New York to Pittsburgh, his impressions of 
Philadelphia and its fine buildings and water-works, and 
the situation, surroundings, and interior arrangements of 
the Western Collegiate Institute. The letter shows that 
thus early he was keenly observant of everything in the 
way of beautiful or striking scenery, a taste that abided 
with him through life, and gave him many a pleasure that 
others less favored with a love of nature could not share. 

Before the journey of young Hardie to what had hardly 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 8 

ceased to ba the "Far West," his father's fbrtimes liad un- 
dergone a cahimitoiis change, and it was only by measures 
of a most resolute and self-sacrificing character that the 
parent was enabled to preserve to the child, whose high 
talents and impulses be fully discerned, some part of those 
advantages of education and training that in his yet pros- 
perous days he had resolved upon. Happily for both, the 
boy understood and reciprocated his father's efforts for his 
well being, and he earnestly strove to be all and to do all 
that the most anxious or exacting of parents could wish. 
His father's self denying spirit he met half-way. His long- 
ings for a parental visit at examination time, and for a visit 
home himself during the "short vacation," he could not, 
indeed, suppress in his letters, but he accompanied them 
with expressions of cheerful resignation at foregoing them, 
that took away the sting of his disappointment. 

In a letter dated December 19, 1838, he tells his father 
of the approaching public examination at the institute, and 
expresses the hope that he may not " disgrace " himself in 
it. His next letter is to his mother, and in a hand even 
more regular and beautiful than before. After a dutiful 
and afl^ectionate opening, he describes to her the public 
examination just held before "a committee composed of 
some of the eminent gentlemen of the city and neighbor- 
hood," and explains that he, a boy under eleven, had no 
chance to win either of the two handsome medals offered 
as premiums for excellence in composition and elocution, 
because among the contestants were " young ladies, eighteen 



4 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

or nineteen years old, who were second to none in the United 
States." His own part in the examination, he thus de- 
scribes : 

" The examination lasted for three days, and I never had such 
a drilling before. My class in Latin excited great admiration. 
I was examined in the greater part of Asia, in the history of 
Greece and Rome, in English and Latin grammar, in Caesar and 
in arithmetic, and I spoke Napoleon's Farewell to France." 

His expectations of future study, and his estimate of the 
uses and pleasures of learning, he thus uufolds : 

"I expect to comm.ence algebra and rhetoric next term, and 
Mr. K. thinks I shall soon be ready for Greek. - * * Tell 

cousin T to gain learning as fast as he can, ml that, should 

he even be confined to a limited sphere in society, he will yet pos- 
sess a pearl whose intrinsic value, the longer he lives, he will the 
more truly appreciate, and from which he will derive a pleasure 
that nothing but the blessing of religious feeling can equal." 

The letters of young Hardie's kiud friend and tutor to 
his pupil's fiither are full of praise aud promise, and the 
only unfavorable report that he makes of him is that he 
has an "extremely quick temper," threatening future 
trouble if not subdued in youth. That it had existed, and 
had been subdued, those intimate with him in after life had 
good reason to believe, for extreme sensitiveness on the one 
hand aud great patience on the other were always marked 
traits in his character. 

Jam3s' stay at the Pittsburgh College was terminated 
prematurely by the resolution of his tutor, reluctantly 
taken, to give up teaching and devote himself wholly to 
theological study under Bishop Mcll value, at Kenyon Col- 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 5 

lege. James was too young to enter that institution, and 
as he had reached an age when he needed more than ever 
that bracing influence of school-fellowship with other boys 
that the most devoted private teaching cannot supply, there 
was nothing to do but for teacher and pupil to part. The 
former was sad enough over the necessity, for he had long 
entertained the thought of training the youth up, under 
his own supervision, for the ministry of the Episcopal 
Church, to which they both belonged, and he comforted 
his young charge and himself by hopes of their coming 
together again in a few years, and carrying out that pro- 
ject to the end. 

The boy was brought back to New York, and eventually 
entered the Poughkeepsie Collegiate School, a noted estab- 
lishment of that day, of which Dr. Bartlett, a highly es- 
teemed instructor and scholar, was principal. While here, 
he conceived the idea of getting an appointment to the 
Military Academy as a means of continuing and advancing 
his studies, his desire for learning increasing with acquisi- 
tion and the lessening of his opportunities for gratifying it. 
He addressed himself to the Representatives in Congress 
from the Hudson river districts, and the tone and style of 
his letters awakened in them an extraordinary interest and 
disposition to serve him, so that from the first their answers 
were highly encouraging and satisfactory. His youthful- 
ness was against him, he being considerably less than fifteen 
years old when he began his efforts, but this objection dis- 
appeared as time went on, and at last, in September, 1839, 



6 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE 

at the age of sixteen years and three months, he entered 
the Academy. His father, besides being widely known and 
highly respected, had both a personal and political friendship 
with the then President, Van Buren, by whose order the ap- 
pointment was issued. James himself had placed on file in 
the War Department a formal application for the place, and 
he thiis stated the considerations by which he hoped to 
move " His Excellency," as he styled him, the Secretary of 
War : 

" I may have some little claim to noti?e, as my great-grand- 
father, Bogardus, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and my 
grandfather and uncle were in the service of the United States 
during the late war, and our family always have and do now 
maintain strict administration principle?.'' 

What the youthful conception of " strict administration 
principles " was there are no means now of ascertaining, 
but as he speaks of them with pride as the principles of 
" our family," and the love of truth and honor that at- 
tended him through life was already a marked feature of 
his character, it is certain that he took them to be the only 
principles suitable for the maintenance of right-minded 
men. 



CHAPTER II. 



CADET LIFE AT WEST POINT. 

As already mentioned, James entered the Military- 
Academy, September 1, 1889, at the age of sixteen years 
and three mouths. AniDng those who entered the same 
class with him and became distingnished in after life were 
Generals Grant, Franklin, Augur, and Steele of the Union 
side, and General Gardner, Confederate commander of 
Port Hudson, during the late civil war. The Union Gen- 
erals, William T. Sherman, Geori!:e H. Thomas, John F. 
Reynolds, Nathaniel Lyon, William S. Rosecrans, Horatio 
G. Wright, Don Carlos Buell, John Pope and John New- 
ton, and the Confederate Generals Ewell, Longstreet, Van 
Dorn and Lovell were already cadets when he entered, and 
during his term as cadet, the Union Generals McClellan, 
Hancock, " Baldy " Smith, Fitz John Porter, Reno, Stone- 
man, Stnrgis, and Charles P. Stone, and the Confederate 
Generals " Stonewall " Jackson, A. P. Hill, Kirby Smith, 
Barnard E. Bee and George E. Pickett entered the classes 
below him. One of his class-mates was the well-known 
Father Deshon, of the Redemptorist and Paulist societies 
of the Roman Catholic Church, and Colonel Garesche, 
killed at the battle of Stone's river while serving on the 
staff of General Rosecrans, and a Catholic of extreme 
piety, was in one of the classes above him. Colonel Dela- 



8 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

field, a promiQeut officer of the eugiueer corps, was the 
Superintendent of the Academy, and Lieutenants Joseph 
Hooker and Irvin McDowell, both major-generals in the 
army now, filled the office of adjutant during the four years 
of young Hardie's cadet life. 

At the first examination, nine months after his admission, 
Cadet Hardie was one of the envied five *' star " cadets 
whose names were published in the Army Register in 
recognition of their merit as students, his rank being 
two in French, and ten in mathematics, out of a class of 
sixty members. The next year he stood three in French, 
five in drawing, eleven in mathematics, and thirteen in 
ethics, in a class of fifty-three. The third year he stood 
two in drawing, nine in chemistry, and thirteen in natural 
philosophy, in a class of forty-one. The fourth year he 
stood seven in ethics, eight in mineralogy and geology, 
eleven in artillery, and twelve in infantry tactics, and thir- 
teen in military and civil engineering ; and w^as graduated 
as eleventh among the thirty-nine who remained of the 
sixty that originally composed the class. His standing in 
discipline, which concerned chiefly his military bearing and 
conduct, w^as an average ninety-eight out of an average 
membership of two hundred and twenty-three. His whole 
number of conduct marks in the four years was three hun- 
dred and ninety-five, while it would have taken eight hun- 
dred, or one hundred in any half year, to have found him 
deficient. It is worthy of remark, in this connection, that 
Don Carlos Buell, known before and during the late war 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 9 

as the strictest disciplinarian in the army, stood in one year 
at the foot of the conduct roll of two hundred and nineteen 
cadets ; such is the seeming inconsistency of human char- 
acter. 

At the time of Cadet Hardie's entry at West Point, the 
custom of " hazing the plebs " was in full vigor, and it was 
his lot to be subjected to it in pretty ample measure, but 
he boreit'good-naturedly, and many years afterwards, when 
past middle life, and stern measures were in vogue for its 
suppression, he spoke of the practice as one that did not 
call for the official pother made about it, and which Avas 
not without its useful influences upon those subjected to it ; 
while, as to the occasional cruel and excessive instances of 
it that were made the grounds of official notice and inter- 
ference, they could and would be most effectually checked 
by the generosity and sense of honor of the cadets them- 
selves. 

Of Cadet Hardie's life at West Point, it is only neces- 
sary to remark that he was the same quiet, diligent, and 
studious youth that he had ever been, popular with his in- 
structors, but sufficiently boyish and companionable to be 
esteemed by his fellow cadets. The examination of his 
class for graduation, in 1843, was conducted before a visit- 
ing committee of which General Winfield Scott was the 
chairman, and it is not surprising that in a presence re- 
garded by them as so august and critical, each unfledged 
military hero was on his mettle, and anxious as to the re- 
sult. 
4 



10 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

Shortly after his graduation, Cadet Hardie, iu accordance 
with the recommendation of the examining board and his 
own desire, was assigned to the artillery arm of the service 
and attached as a brevet or supernumerary second lieuten- 
ant to the first regiment of artillery, with station at Han- 
cock Barracks, Maine. After a year's service to teach him 
the duties of an officer in garrison, he was ordered back to 
West Point as assistant professor in the department of 
geography, history, and ethics, all of them subjects in 
which his heart was enlisted. He was then but a little 
over twenty-one years of age, but, apart from his profi- 
ciency, had enough of the gravity of manner that devotion 
to learning always gives, to be a successful teacher of the 
youths of sixteen or seventeen that formed his classes. 



CHAPTER III. 



CALIFORNIA SERVICE DURING MEXICAN WAR. 

In 1846, the administration of President Polk, under 
the aggressive influence of Governor Marcy, of New York, 
then Secretary of War, formed the design of raising a vol- 
unteer regiment of youug and picked men, and sending 
them to California, to be employed as long as need be for 
military purposes, and then disbanded and left in Califor- 
nia as a nucleus of defense and extension for the weak and 
scattered American settlements in that then Mexican prov- 
ince. The raising and command of the regiment was en- 
trusted to Jonathan D. Stevenson, a friend of Secretary 
Marcy's, and in looking about for military talent to asso- 
ciate with him in the command, his choice fell upon Lieu- 
tenant Hardie for the post of major. The latter accepted 
the appointment, and Colonel Stevenson thereupon pro- 
cured from the Secretary of War an order relieving him 
from duty at the Military Academy and granting him leave 
of absence for two years with permission to go abroad. 
Thus he found himself at the age of twenty-three engaged 
in an important enterprise, and upon the threshold of re- 
sponsibilities from which he would, with his sensitive and 
self-distrusting nature, have shrunk, could he have foreseen 
them. 



12 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

The regiment sailed from New York for California, by 
way of Cape Horn, in the month of September, 1846, four 
mouths after the existence of war between the United States 
and Mexico had been recognized by Congress. Three 
merchants ships were chartered by the Government to con- 
vey the regiment and on one of these, the " Loo Choo," 
were embarked three and a half companies, and the vessel, 
with the detachment, was placed under command of Major 
Hardie, who was furnished with the following letter from 
the Department of State, signed by the gentleman who 
subsequently became noted as the negotiator of the treaty 
of Guadalupe Hidalgo : 

" To the Diplomatic and ConsuLai' Agents of the United States of 
America. 
" Department of State, 

" Washington, September 14, 1846. 
" The American ship ' Loo Choo,' having on board troops of 
the United States commanded by Major James A. Hardie, (under 
whose orders likewise the master and crew are placed,) is one of 
three transport ships of the United States that are to sail imme- 
diately from New York for the northwest coast of America, in 
company with the United States sloop-of-war ' Preble.' 

" These vessels will, it is to be presumed, become separated in 
the course of the voyage, and find themselves under the necessity 
of seeking, singly, the hospitality of ports of friendly nations, in 
quest of what they may need. I have accordingly to request 
that, should this happen in the country where you are accredited, 
every proper step will be taken by you to obtain for them, with 
the least possible delay, all the facilities and friendly accommoda- 
tions to which their actual character as national vessel entitles 
them under the established usages of comity among nations. 

"N. P. Trist, 
' ' Acting Secretary of State. ' ' 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 13 

The " Loo Choo " reached San Francisco after a stormy 
voyage of six months, enlivened by a brief stay at Rio Ja- 
neiro, where Major Hardie and his officers were magnifi- 
cently entertained by the young Emperor, now the famous 
Dom Pedro II. The other two vessels also got in safely 
with their detachments. A company of the Third Artil- 
lery, Major Hardie's own regiment, having William T. 
Sherman as junior First Lieutenant, had already reached 
there from New York. Major Hardie and his detachment 
took post at San Francisco, and he came into command 
and charge of both military and civil aflfairs in that part 
of Upper California ; Colonel Masou, who succeeded Colonel 
Kearney as military commander and governor of the whole 
district, fixing his headquarters at Monterey, with Lieutenant 
Sherman for his Chief of Staff. The position of Major 
Hardie was both arduous and delicate, having to deal with 
turbulent volunteers, anxious for the field and impatient at 
the restraints of garrison life, wdth discontented and sullen 
natives, and adventurers of all sorts from the United States, 
between whom and the soldiers the natives found occasion 
enough to call upon the commandant for redress and pro- 
tection. Fears of a native rising against the American 
occupation were constant and well-founded, and served to 
keep the commanding officers in a constant state of watch- 
fulness and anxiety, both with regard to the inhabitants, 
that they might not take the troops by surprise, and the 
troops, that they might always be ready to march or fight, 
as circumstances might demand. In Mexico, too, actual 



14 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

aud glorious war was in progress, in which tlie army was 
gaining laurels, and possibly rewards, that those in Cali- 
fornia might envy, but saw no prospect of sharing. It 
was under such influences that Major Hardie, after two 
months of trial in the command at San Francisco, asked 
to be relieved from his volunteer rank and command, and 
ordered upon his commission of Second Lieutenant of 
Artillery, to join his regiment in Mexico. Towards this 
request Colonel Mason, a strict and even harsh disciplina- 
rian of the " old school," as the phrase was known in those 
days, took the unusual course of replying under his own 
hand, and in kindly terms, assuring him that his unenvi- 
able and perplexing situation was thoroughly recognized ; 
that his course had been wise and prudent, and was fully 
approved ; that the idea of relieving him was, in view of 
the public interests connected with the occupation and 
organization of Upper California, inadmissible, and that he 
could not, under the circumstances, abandon his rank and 
command without injuriously affecting his reputation as a 
military man. This letter seems to have had the effect in- 
tended, and as his position grew still more arduous and 
responsible with the growth and developement of American 
interests and settlements, his cheerfulness and patience kept 
pace with the demand for their exercise. The selection of 
San Francisco bay as the rendezvous for the considerable 
naval force kept on the Californian coast, threw upon Major 
Hardie, as the military commandant, the duties of hospi- 
tality that always arise upon such occasions, and his success 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 15 

in the performance of these social duties contributed largely 
to the formation and maintenance of that good understand- 
ing between the two arms of service which succeeded the 
original conflicts of authority and purpose which are part 
of the history of the conquest of California. 

In the summer of 1847, Major Hardie, in conjunction 
with tiie naval commander then on the station, selected 
and reported the reservations to be made for the military, 
naval, and civil purposes of the General Government at 
San Francisco. In the following spring he was sent to the 
Territory of Oregon to enlist, organize, and muster in a 
battalion of volunteers for service in Lower California, 
which, though of little value intrinsically, the Government 
desired to hold for the moral advantages it gave in treating 
with Mexico for a cessation of the war. But despite the 
earnest and intelligent efforts of Major Hardie, which met 
the warm approval of Colonel Mason, no volunteers could 
be obtained for such a tame and unattractive service, and 
a like attempt to raise a battalion among the Mormons 
having failed, it became necessary to form a detachment 
from the troops in Upper California, and Major Hardie 
was ordered to conduct the force to Lower California, and 
turn it over to the commanding officer of that district. 

It was while on this visit to Oregon that Major Hardie 
became an open convert to the Roman Catholic religion, 
towards which he had long been tending, and within whose 
communion he remained, as devoted, sincere, and useful a 
member as its laity ever contained, till the day of his death 



16 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

UpoQ his return to San Francisco, he set about the erection 
of a place of worship for the use of that church, and in 
one day succeeded in collecting $3,000, upon which sum 
the first Catholic church in San Francisco was erected in 
1848. An unexpected result of his joining the Catholic 
church at the time he did was his probable preservation 
from death by assassination, for stepping into the lodgings 
of a priest one evening to converse with him about his 
newly-assumed religious duties, he made so long a stay as 
to wear out the patience of a desperate character who, in 
revenge for a reprimand administered to him for an act of 
theft in which he had been detected, had waylaid the Major 
at a lonely point between the town and the camp at the 
Presidio, several miles distant, for the purpose of shooting 
him. This desperado was soon afterwards hung for high- 
way robbery, and he and his companion in the crime and 
its punishment played a game of cards to decide which 
should first swing upon the primitive and single gallows. 

Major Hardie had scarcely returned from Oregon and 
Lower California when a cry went up from Sonoma to 
headquarters at Monterey of an imminent Indian raid upon 
the settlements, and he was sent to inquire into the matter 
and if really necessary, to muster in a temporary force of 
volunteers. But the cry turned out to be no more than a 
device to prevent the withdrawal of the company of troops 
stationed at Sonoma, and whose removal for service else- 
where threatened to injuriously affect the trade of that 
struggling town. Every officer who has served on the 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 17 

frontier, as well as the authorities at Washington, have 
since become familiar with such devices for creating or 
retaining trade in the settlements, and many a round sum 
it has cost the Government since 1848. 

In the summer of 1848 the "gold fever" began to rage, 
and the rush of everybody to the diggings, and the inflation 
of prices that followed the coming in of the gold, greatly 
embarrassed the military officers, both in keeping their 
troops and in keeping themselves. The accounts that have 
been written of the social disorganization that marked the 
earlier stages of the developement of gold-mining in Cal- 
ifornia, seem almost incredible to the distant reader, but 
the following extract from a letter received in the fall of 
that year from an intimate friend at Oregon City, the capital 
of the Territory of that name, will show how little the ac- 
counts of what happened in California itself are exagge- 
rated. The writer says : "Our people are all going to Cali- 
fornia. Our lawyers are all gone — we are, perhaps, none 
the worse for that — our circuit judge is gone, and I am 
told our supreme judge is going. Most of our Legislature 
are gone, and in fact, I am afraid it will dissolve our or- 
o-anization." 



CHAPTER IV. 



GARRISON LIFE AFTER THE WAR. 

The war with Mexico being over, Major Hardie, who 
had meantime become a First Lieutenant in the Third Ar- 
tillery, was mustered out of the volunteer service in October, 
1848, and then, as an officer of the regular army, was 
assigned to the duty of mustering out and discharging the 
ATolunteers in different parts of California. He also served 
as a member of the Board of Engineers, to establish the 
city grades of San Francisco, and received a grant of four 
town lots from the municipality. In the spring of 1849, 
having seen the last of the volunteers mustered out and 
paid, he was ordered East, and making the journey safely 
by way of the Isthmus, was assigned to a quiet garrison 
life at Fort Trumbull, New London Harbor. He remained 
here till the summer of 1850, when his assignment as the 
junior First Lieutenant of Light Company C of his regiment, 
of which Braxton Bragg was Captain, and William T. 
Sherman, senior First Lieutenant, carried him to Jefferson 
Barracks, near Saint Louis. He was ordered to convey to 
that station a detachment of recruits, and in addition to 
the usual interesting experiences of an officer conducting 
recruits, the long journey down the Ohio river was en- 
livened by the breaking out of cholera on the slow and 
motley-crowded steamboat, which tied-up every four hours 



20 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

to bury the victims. By diut of extraordinary exertions 
iu keeping the men of his detachment clean, lively, and 
abstemious, and with the aid of a citizen physician whom 
he found on board and hired as surgeon to the detachment, 
he succeeded in bringing all his recruits sately through the 
perilous journey. 

During his tour of service at Jefferson Barracks, Lieu- 
tenant Hardie made the acquaintance of Miss Margaret 
Hunter, of St. Louis, niece of his old commander in Cali- 
fornia, Colonel Mason, of the dragoons, and in 1851 they 
were married in that city. Eight children were born of 
that marriage, of whom three preceded their father to the 
grave. Life was pleasant at Jefferson Barracks, and the 
appointment of judge advocate of a general court-martial 
convened at that station, gratified the desire of the still 
youthful officer for mental employment ; but in the fall of 
1851, the resignation of the regimental adjutant, now 
Professor Quinby, of the Rochester University, made a 
vacancy in that office which the regimental commander, iu 
the solemn aud deliberate and somewhat stilted phraseology 
used by elderly military men in those days iu communi- 
cating with their juniors, tendered to Lieutenant Hardie. 
The appointment w^as of course accepted with becoming 
modesty and expressions of a proper sense of responsibility, 
and the new adjutant, with his young wife, left Jefferson 
Barracks for the regimental headquarters at Fort Adams, 
Newport, Rhode Island. The new position involved plenty 
of administrative and office w^ork, and in it Lieutenant 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 21 

Hardie strengthened both his reputation for administrative 
ability and his liking for staff employments. He remained 
at Newport till nearly the end of 1853, when, as he was 
about embarking on the disastrous voyage of the ill-fated 
" San Francisco " for the Pacific coast, to which station 
his regiment and its headquarters had been transferred 
by General Scott, he received an order appointing him 
one of the aides-de-camp of ]\[ajor General Wool, whose 
headquarters were then at Baltimore, and thus escaped the 
peril, and possibly the death that overtook so many of his 
regiment. He shortly after accompanied General Wool 
to California, when that officer went out to command the 
Pacific department, and served on his staff till May, 1855, 
when he resumed his position as regimental adjutant, 
receiving a very gracious letter from General Wool on 
retiring, in Avhich that precise and careful writer said to 
him : " You have served with ability, honesty and %ith- 
fulness ; indeed, no one could have served better or more 
to my satisfaction." 

In those early days, California was an unwelcome station 
to an army officer that happened to be married, and in 
1854, George H. Thomas, who nearly twenty years after, 
died at San Francisco a major-general, and in command of 
the Pacific division, was a captain in the Third Artillery, 
on duty at West Point, but under orders to join his regi- 
ment as soon as relieved by Colonel Robert E. Lee. He 
wrote to Lieutenant Hardie, begging him to send him all 
the information he could about the several stations of the 



22 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE 



regiment and whether he had better bring his wife, or leave 
her at home, adding, " I am somewhat inclined to think 
that California will not be adapted for the residence of 
ladies for many years to come." 

In California, Lieutenant Hardie, in 1854, found his old 
comrade, " Tecumseh," or, as he was then universally called, 
" Bill " Sherman, who, having resigned from the army, was 
in the full tide of civil life as a banker and broker at San 
Francisco. They had been closely associated in 1847 and 
1848, on the same ground, and again at St. Louis in 1850 
and 1851, and a close and warm intercourse and corres- 
pondence sprang up between them at once, many of the 
letters passing between them at Beuicia and San Francisco 
being extant, and showing them both in characters of which 
their children have no cause to be ashamed. From only 
one of those letters will any quotation be made, and that 
because it constitutes an interesting reminiscence of a public 
event which has grown dim, no doubt, in the memory of 
Californians. In a letter dated August 29, 1855, from Sher- 
man to Hardie, the former says : " We are to have a cele- 
bration on the 10th September, by the California pioneers, 
and by the people generally. Can't' you join? If you 
know of any saddle or bridle fixings suitable for parade, 
put me on the track, as there will be a scarcity. I have 
saddle and bridle and the promise of a saddle cloth. Still, 
if I could lay my hand on a full rig, I would be better 
satisfied, as I have to act as grand marshal on the occasion.'' 



CHAPTER V. 



EXPEDITION AGAINST SPOKAN INDIANS. 

lo October, 1857, Lieutenant Hardie reached the grade 
of captain by regular promotion in his regiment, and left 
the adjutantcy for the command of a company at San 
Bernardino. The following year his company formed part 
of the expedition conducted by Colonel George Wright 
against the Spokan Indians in Washington Territory, who 
had become, after their surprise and massacre of part of 
Colonel Steptoe's command, hostile, insolent, and defiant. 
The story of this expedition was, at its close, written in an 
interesting manner by Lieutenant Lawrence Kip, of the 
Third Artillery, and published. Few campaigns in the 
Indian country have been better planned and executed, or 
more successful. The pride of the Spokans, and of their 
allies, the Pelouse, Cffiur d'Alene, and Pend d'Orcille bands, 
was completely broken in two engagements, in which the 
Indians suffered severely, while the troops, owing to the 
skillful management of their commander and^ the use of 
the newly-introduced long-range rifle, escaped without any 
loss of life and with but few wounds. The Indians fought 
with marked bravery, but this only added to their losses, 
and increased the moral effects of their defeat. Captain 
Hardie, being the field-officer of the day at the time of the 
first engagement, and therefore in charge of the camp, took 



24 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

no active part therein, but in the second, known as the 
battle of Spokan Plains, his company was on the skirmish 
line and bore a prominent part in the action, advancing 
upon the enemy through the Hames of the prairie grass in 
which the savages had enveloped Colonel Wright and his 
command. The action lasted seven hours, and at its close 
the troops found themselves fourteen miles beyond the point 
of its commencement, worn out, and famished for water. 

Upon the return of the expedition to Fort Walla Walla, 
its point of assembliug and departure, the troops were dis- 
tributed, and Captain Hardie went to Fort Vancouver; 
then to the Cascades ; then back to Vancouver ; then to 
the Dalles. In July, 1860, he became adjutant-general 
of the Department of Oregon, commanded by Colonel 
Wright, and continued in that position till ordered east in 
May, 1861, upon the breaking out of the rebellion. In 
the fall of 1860, he effected an insurauce upon his life, a 
step that involved a considerable pecuniary sacrifice, for 
the entries in his memorandum books show how severe was 
the struggle, from year to year, to provide for the wants of 
a growing family, in a frontier country, out of the slender 
pay of an army ofhcer. These mute witnesses of the rigor 
of the Government in dealing with its faithful servants, 
plead eloquently for generous treatment of the army in 
peace, as well as in war. 

The journals and scrap-books of Captain Hardie, kept 
during the fall of i860, show how intently he watched the 
progress and attempted to forecast the result of the seces- 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 25 

sion uioveiiieut in the South. His own purpo.se to stand 
by the Government seems to have been all the time clear, 
but that he yielded no blind obedience may be inferred 
from his studies upon the right of revolution and armed 
resistance, considered both upon philosophic and religious 
grounds. There is also an unfinished study of slavery, 
in which, though admitting its lawful existence and right 
of protection till lawfully destroyed, he condemns the 
system of slavery in general upon high moral grounds, 
and asserts the equality of man in nature, and the existence 
of a native feeling of independence in the heart of man 
that ought to be respected. A poetical composition of 
great merit, entitled "Stars of my Country's Sky," clipped 
from a T^ew England paper and constituting an eloquent 
appeal against the breaking up of the Union, seems to 
have attracted his especial favor. In December, 1860, he 
received a letter from his old company commander at 
Jefferson barracks, Braxton Bragg, who had left the army 
and was living as a planter at Thibodeaux, Louisiana. 
This letter, which was in reference to some matter con- 
nected with the regiment, and bore evidence of how 
impossible it is for an old officer to separate himself i'rom 
the army by resigning his commission and turning civilian, 
contained, of course, a reference to the topic then upper- 
most in men's minds, and in view of the part borne by the 
writer in the events that followed it in point of time, what 
he said may be of present interest, it being premised that 



26 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

the writer died but a few weeks before the recipient of the 
letter. The followiug is the extract : 

" My life has been a very retired one in the country, and up to 
this time as prosperous as man has the right to expect ; but a 
change has just come over affairs in our country which you have 
heard ere this, and which it is shocking to contemplate. Political 
agitators, for their own selfish ends, have brought us to the verge 
of civil war, and if we avoid that, I see no way of saving our 
country. Government is now virtually dissolved ; and whether 
it can be reconstructed, or whether we are to remain in anarchy, 
or resort to arms, with friends and brothers opposed, without a 
reason or an object, no one can foresee. Escaping the horrors of 
civil war, pecuniary ruin can but overtake those of us who are 
but partially established. You are to be envied in Oregon and 
California. Bound to neither party, you may decline the fate of 
either and set up for yourselves. Would that my lot was on the 
Pacific ! " 

Several times diiriDg his tour of service on the Pacific 
coast, the name of Lieutenant and Captain Hardie had 
been forwarded to Washington with recommendations for 
his promotion and transfer to the general staff, for which 
branch of the service he had always shown that peculiar 
aptness that sliould constitute the chief recommendation 
for appointment in it. But these appointments lay first in 
the control of Jefierson Davis, and subsequently of John 
B. Floyd, successive Secretaries of War, with whom the 
ofliicers that recommended Captain Hardie, though men of 
the first rank and reputation in the army, had no influence, 
and though political influence was not beyond his reach, 
and the use of it was urged upon him by army friends 
anxious for his success, he shrunk from resorting to what 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 27 

be regarded as au unmilitary way of gainiug a military 
advantage. Consequently, when ordered east in May, 1861, 
he was still a captain of artillery, with no prospect of pro- 
motion in that small and select arm of the service for years 
to come. In the large increase of the regular army 
ordered at the beginning of the war, only one regiment 
was added to the artillery, and to that he was transferred 
with several other officers of the four regiments of artillery, 
in order to leaven the new lump with old material. This 
transfer made him the senior captain in the new regiment, 
but did not better his prospects of promotion to the rank 
of major, which does not go regimentally, like the grades 
below it. His departure from California was sweetened by 
a farewell letter from the commander of the department, 
full of hearty and sincere tributes to his personal and pro- 
fessional character, and the Catholic vicar-general of the 
diocese in which Oregon was embraced also wrote him an 
affectionate letter in which he says : "I have this evening 
recommended to the prayers of the arch-confraternity all 
the troops that leave, or will leave Oregon and Washing- 
ton for the terrible struggle that threatens our country." 



CHAPTER VI. 



SERVICE WITH ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 

Captain Hardie reached New York in safety, and in the 
late summer of 1861, made his way to Washington. Con- 
gress was in special session, and had been at work on the 
army, and his first experience was that the lieutenants who 
had been serving on the staff" at Washington with the tem- 
porary rank of captain, and were therefore on the ground 
to look after their interests, had, by the potency of an act 
of Congress, been legislated at one bound into the perma- 
nent rank of major, and so exchanged places with those 
who but yesterday were their seniors in rank, as they still 
were in years and in length of service. No censure at- 
tached to these young officers for getting such promotion as 
they could in the general inflation of the number and rank 
of army officers to meet the necessities of the war that had 
become flagrant, but it was a bitter, though perhaps only 
a brief trial to those officers who had been relatively re- 
duced in rank by this act of legislation, and especially to 
those who, like Captain Hardie, had been prevented by 
absence on distant service from obtaining any advantage 
from the new legislation during the short time only in 
which there were any promotions available. After an un- 
successful effort to get a staff' appointment to his liking, he 



30 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

joiued the headquarters of the new reghneiit of artillery to 
which, he had been transferred, and which at the time con- 
sisted oaly of officers. He was ordered to the New England 
States on recruiting service, September 2, 1861, and was 
turning over and over the problem as to where recruits for 
the regular army could be found when every State was 
exerting itself to raise its quota of volunteers under the 
call issued immediately after the battle of Bull Rud, when 
he was recalled to AVashiugton by a telegram which noti- 
fied him of his appointment to a lieutenant colonelcy on 
the staff of Major-Geueral McClellan, who had been as- 
signed to the command of the army upon the retirement of 
General Scott. This was indeed a welcome change of rank 
and duty. On reporting to General McClellan, he was 
associated with Brigadier General Williams, the adjutant 
general of the Army of the Potomac, in conducting the 
great and increasing business of the adjutant general's de- 
partment of that ever growing army. The duty was con- 
genial, and, within the knowledge of every division and 
brigade commander of the army, was admirably performed. 
One of the special charges of C'olouel Hardie was to keep 
constantly informed of the organization of the army with 
respect to the composition of its brigades and divisions ; 
also the names of the regimental and other commanders, 
the locations of the camps, available strength of the organ- 
izations, means of transportation, character of armament, 
and other like particulars. This information he kept in 
small memorandum pocket books, so as to have it at all 



JAMES ALLEN HA E DIE. 81 

times available, and the tabular statements in which he 
presented it are models of patience and ingenuity. 

Colonel Hardie accompanied General McClellau in the 
Peninsular and Maryland campaigns of 1862, and was 
retained by General Burnside, who had served with him 
in by-gone years, when both were Lieutenants in the Third 
Artillery. At the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 
1862, he was sent by General Burnside to remain with 
General Franklin, and report the progress of the operations 
under charge of that officer on the left, and this duty he 
performed with such intiUigeiice and fidelity, that when an 
unfortunate controversy arose between the two com- 
manders as to the resj)()nsibilily for the failure of those 
operations, they both referred to the field despatches of 
General Hardie, for he had just been appointed a brigadier 
general of volunteers, as exhibiting a true statement of 
the orders given and of the operations that occurred. 

^Mention has just been made of Colonel Hardie's 
advancement to the rank of brigadier general. Before 
the removal of General McClellan from the command of 
the Army of the Potomac, Colonel Hardie had contem- 
plated an eflTort to see whether the influence he had gained 
during his sqrvice at headquarters, added to his military 
record of twenty years, would not secure him a larger field 
of action, together with the promotion that so many of his 
contemporaries had received through their better fortune, 
but he had taken no steps in the matter, and the removal 
of General McClellan terminated his plans for the time 



32 .TA^MES ALLEN HAEDIE 

being. He soou learDed, however, that Geueral BurDside, 
with characteristic generosity, had no sooner acquired the 
influence resulting from his appointment to the command 
of the army, than he forwarded the name of Colonel 
Hardie to the War Department for promotion to the rank 
of brigadier, and had obtained from several of his divi- 
sional commanders endorsements of his own recommenda- 
tion. The subject being thus broached, and in a manner 
gratifying to the modest nature of Colonel Hardie, the latter 
applied to several officers of high rank, who knew him well, 
to add their testimonials of his merit and fitness to those 
voluntarily forwarded to Washington by General Burnside. 
From the recommendations thus placed on record in the 
War Office, the following extracts, selected as being 
of probable interest to the readers of this Memoir, are 
given below : 

" Colonel Hardie was a class-mate of mine, and cunsequenlly 
an acquaintance of over twenty-three years has existed. I do 
not hesitate to say that he is well qualified for the position of 
brigadier general, having served continuously in the army from 
the time of his graduation to the present time, and always enjoy- 
ing the confidence of those with whom he has been associated. 
^ * The service is already retarded by the appointment of so 
many men without military experience, that I feel as if a great 
benefit had been done every time an officer of his class is 
advanced." — General Grant. 

" 1 beg leave to add my own recommendation, based upon a 
long acquaintance with that most meritorious officer, and a full 
knowledge of his eminent qualifications for the promotion for 
which his name is presented." — General Burnside. 

" I desire to add my testimony to that "of many others to his 



JAMES xVLLEN HARDIE. 33 

eminent qualifications for that station. He is familiar with the 
duties, and will be earnest, zealous and devoted, in the discharge 
of them."— General Hooker. 

" Lieutenant Colonel Hardie was one of my aides-de-camp in 
California. I always found him an intelligent, active and efficient 
officer. Should he obtain the office of brigadier general, I have 
no doubt he would discharge his duties with ability and distinc- 
tion. I would be delighted to have him under my command." — 
General Wool. 

" Lieutenant Colonel Hardie is an excellent and talented officer, 
and would worthily fill the position of brigadier general of 
volunteers. I trust he may be so commissioned. I have been 
acquainted with Colonel Hardie for twenty-two years ; he has 
been a faithful officer in every position in the army in which he 
has been placed." — General Hancock. 

" Lieutenant Colonel Hardie has served in the same regiment 
with myself for over eighteen years, and it gives me great pleasure 
to bear testimony to his soldierly qualities and ability, his faithful 
and assiduous devotion to his profession. His usefulness in his 
present position as adjutant general on the staff" at headquarters 
has, I conceive, been a bar to his advancement, up to the present 
time, which injustice ought no longer to be allowed to remain." 
— General Keynolds, of Gettysburg. 

" No officer of his rank can show a record of continuous hard 
service which will excel Captain Hardie's." — General Frank- 
lin. 

" I take the liberty of uniting my testimony to that already re- 
ceived as to his eminent fitness for the duties belonging to the rank 
of a general officer. * * I have had the opportunity of noting 
his rare devotion to duty, his talents, his high qualifications as a 
cultivated officer, and his fine qualities as a soldier." — General 
Humphreys. 

" My confidence in his ability and his merits are such that it 
would give me great pleasure to have him assigned to duty with 
me if the President should confer the appointment upon him." — 
General Butterfield. 



84 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

It being evident that the battle of Fredericksburg would 
be followed by a repose of several weeks at least, General 
McClellau, who was anxious to have the services of Gen- 
eral Hardie in the preparation of his report on the organi- 
zation and operations of the Army of the Potomac between 
the dates of his assignment to, and removal from its com- 
mand, applied to the War Department for them, and with 
the consent of General Burnside, he was sent to General 
McClellan in New York, and did a great deal of work in 
preparing material for the document upon which General 
McClellan purposed to rely for the vindication of his 
military character, and, possibly, the redemption of his 
military fortunes. Upon the appointment of General 
Hooker to the command of the Army of the Potomac, 
that officer, finding the discipline of the army somewhat 
loosened by the events of the two preceding months, re- 
solved, as one of the means of restoring it, to improve the 
character of trials by courts martial and courts of inquiry, 
which had become somewhat uncertain and inefficient in 
their operations, as well as unduly numerous. He there- 
fore cast about for a fitting officer to place on duty as judge 
advocate general of his army and settled upon General 
Hardie, whose return to headquarters he therefore solicited. 
At the same time his services were applied for by the Ad- 
jutant General, whose duties had so grown under the con- 
tinual enlargement of the army, and the multiplication of 
commands, organizations, and military districts and stations, 
as the national forces spread themselves over the South, 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 35 

that the need of additional assistants of experience and 
skill in army administration had become imperative. Gen- 
eral Hooker was not disposed to surrender his project of 
making General Hardie the judge advocate general of his 
army, but yielded at length to the representations from 
Washington, and General Hardie, seeing that he was in- 
evitably destined for staff duty and receiving the tender of 
a major's rank in the adjutant general's department at once, 
with assurances that his withdrawal from the field should 
not prejudice his claims to future consideration, accepted 
the offer and assurances, and, vacating his volunteer rank 
of brigadier, entered upon duty as assistant to the adjutant 
general, with his rank as lieutenant colonel and aide-de- 
camp. 



CHAPTER VII. 



SERVICE IN THE WAR DEPARTMENT. 

Colonel Hardie's duties as assistant adjutant general 
brought him into personal acquaintance with Secretary 
Stanton, who had in a high degree the faculty of judging 
the character and capacities of men instantaneously, and 
it was not long before the Secretary, whose own labors, 
herculean as they already were, were ever increasing, 
found Colonel Hardie so valuable to himself that his 
services in the Adjutant General's Office were terminated 
by his transfer to the staff of the Secretary of War. 

In the latter part of June, 1863, while the Army of the 
Potomac was endeavoring by forced marches to intercept 
General Lee in his advance into Pennsylvania, and Gen- 
eral Hooker was hoping by a successful issue to the 
impending battle to retrieve the reputation he had lost at 
Chancellorsville, the authorities at Washington determined 
to supersede him by General Meade, commander of one of 
his corps. The motives for this action have nothing to do 
with this narrative, and are not therefore discussed. Gen- 
eral Hooker, naturally reluctant to abandon the chance of 
recovering his fortunes, was at last made to see that it was 
not intended to entrust him with the conduct of the great 
and decisive battle which was clearly foreseen, and on June 
27, the orders of the President for the change of com- 



38 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE 

manders were made out at the War Department. Secretary 
Stanton, who seemed to have a special anxiety as to the 
manner in which these orders should be communicated and 
executed, called Colonel Hardie into the room where he 
was closeted with President Lincoln and General Halleck, 
bade him read carefully the orders and memorize their sub- 
stance, and then directed him to' leave at once by rail for 
Frederick City, at which point the Federal army had ar- 
rived on its northward march, and finding General Meade, 
without communicating his mission to anybody, accompany 
that officer to the headquarters of General Hooker, and 
see the command transferred to him both formally and 
actually. He was further directed to remain long enough 
to ascertain the positions of the army, and the plans and 
dispositions of the new commander, and then return to 
Washington and report. Should the railway be cut by 
the raiding Confederate cavalry, he was directed to avail 
himself of whatever other opportunity there was of getting 
to Frederick City, and if necessary to destroy the orders 
to prevent their coming into the hands of the enemy, he 
was still, if he could reach Frederick City, to communicate 
them verbally and insist upon their execution, as both his 
person and his position were well known to the two officers 
concerned. 

Colonel Hardie reached Frederick City in safety, though 
not without several alarms, and found the town and the 
roads leading to the camps beyond full of carousing 
soldiery. Ascertaining that General Meade's headquarters 



JAME8 ALLEN HAEDIE. 39 

were several miles out of town, he obtained a conveyance 
with great difficulty — it being long past midnight — and 
after a slow and troublesome progress past the throng of 
soldiers returning to their camps, reached General Meade's 
headquarters and penetrated to his tent without disclosing 
his name, rank or business. General Meade, awakened 
from the brief rest lie was taking, after the labors of the 
day and night, by Colonel Hardie's colloquy with the 
sentinel in front of the tent, and recognizing his visitor, ex- 
pressed astonishment at seeing him there, and, when 
informed that it was business from Washington that 
brought him, was so little prepared for the nature of that 
business, that his comments showed his fears that calumny 
and intrigue had been busy with him, as with so many 
other officers of rank in that army. When he had read 
the order of the President and realized its import, he soon 
made his visitor aware that nothing but his sense of im- 
plicit obedience to any lawful command would induce him 
to obey it, and he shrunk, as did Colonel Hardie himself, 
from the preordained manner of executing it, by going 
secretly to the headquarters of General Hooker and de- 
manding possession of the chief command, instead of 
permitting General Hooker to be first made aware of the 
state of affiiirs, so that he might send for his successor and 
invest him with it in his own time and manner. But as 
even this part of the programme had been carefully con- 
sidered at Washington, doubtless there appeared good 
reasons at the time to the authorities why the feelings of 



40 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

two meritorious officers like Generals Hooker and Meade 
should be sacrificed to a public exigency, and certainly 
some thougbtfulness was shown in sending Colonel Hardie 
to supervise so delicate a transaction ; he being on terms of 
intimacy with both ofhcers, and known to them both as 
sensitive and thoughtful in his dealings with his fellow-men 
to the last degree. 

General Meade had shared the opinion of the whole 
army, that if General Hooker were to be superseded, Gen- 
eral Reynolds, commander of the First Corps, should and 
would be appointed to the chief command, and as they 
were devoted friends, his anxiety to confer with Reynolds 
Avas intense, but had to give way to the imperative order 
to assume command of the army at once. So, attended by 
Colonel Hardie, he proceeded to the headquarters of Gen- 
eral Hooker, where, with only such manifestation of feeling 
as was natural upon the occasion, the operation that had 
been so anxiously planned at Washington was quietly per- 
formed. Colonel Hardie remained nearly all the day of 
June 28, and took a leading part in the preparation of the 
orders of Generals Hooker and Meade announcing the 
change of command, adding to the latter, with the warm 
approval of General Meade, a paragraph paying a 
generous tribute to the past glories of the retiring chief. 
Then, as soon as General Meade had ascertained the posi- 
tions of his army, and determined upon his general plan 
of operation. Colonel Hardie returned to Washington and 
made his report to the Secretary of War. 



JAMES ALLEN IIARDIE. 41 

111 the fall of 18(38, Secretary Stanton made his theu 
famous trip to the west to meet General Grant and fix 
upon a plan for combining all the military forces and 
operations in the southwest under that officer, and as it 
was necessary, in the absence of Assistant Secretary Wat- 
son, to have some one designated, under the sign-manual 
of the President, to perform the indispensable duties of 
the Secretary at Washington, he drew up and the Presi- 
dent signed, the following instrument : 

" October 17, 1863. 
" Lt. Col. James Hardie is authorized to perform the duties of 
Secretary of War during the temporary absence of the Secretary 
and Assistant Secretary. 

" Abraham Lincoln." 

This appointment Colonel Hardie held till the return of 
Mr. Stanton. 

In the early spring of 1864, Secretary Stanton, knowing 
that the plans of General Grant for the coming campaign 
would, in the progress of their execution, uncover Wash- 
ington so far as his army was concerned, and possibly 
render necessary a reduction of the garrison to reinforce 
the troops at the front, an event that really happened, 
became anxious for accurate information as to the state of 
the defenses of Washington, and how they could be im- 
proved and strengthened to meet the two contingencies 
above mentioned. He sent for Colonel Hardie, and, ex- 
plaining to him his ideas upon the subject, directed him 
to make an exhaustive and personal inspection of the 



42 .tamp:s allen hardie. 

defenses, and report both upon the actual state of the 
works and their garrisons, and what was needed to increase 
the strength of the first and the morale and efficiency of 
the last. This was native and congenial duty, and it is 
not surprising that it was so well performed as to greatly 
add to the good opinion already held by the Secretary as 
to the talents and industry of his military assistant, and at 
the same moment an opportunity arose of manifesting his 
regard in a substantial manner of which he was not slow 
to avail himself. The death of Colonel Van Rensselaer, 
Inspector General, an aged officer of the army, being 
reported to the War Department March 24, 1864, Mr. 
Stanton immediately made out the nomination of Colonel 
Hardie for the vacant place and carried it to the President, 
who as promptly signed it and transmitted it to the Senate, 
where it received the unusual compliment of an immediate, 
as well as a unanimous confirmation. The manner in 
which this appointment was conferred was thus as gratify- 
ing as the promotion it gave of two grades in the perma- 
nent branch of that profession to which Colonel Hardie 
had devoted his life. Thus, too, was redeemed the promise 
that his withdrawal from the field to take a less conspic- 
uous but more useful post in that department, without 
whose efficient working achievements in the field would be 
impossible or vain, should not bar his advancement. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



SERVICE IN INSPECTOR GENERAl's DEPARTMENT. 

The transfer of Colonel Hardie to the inspection branch 
of the array was agreeable to himself because, both as a 
line and a staiF officer, and as a result of his observation 
and of his military studies, and without any idea that his 
fate would ever carry him into the post of an Inspector 
General, he had always held high views of the necessity 
and advantage of a good inspection service for an army. 
Being put in charge of the Inspection Bureau at Washing- 
ton, in addition to his duties under the Secretary of War, 
he exerted himself to do his part towards developing and 
improving the service and thus to magnify his office in the 
best meaning of that phrase. An embarrassment to a man 
of his nature was that three of the officers of the depart- 
ment of which he was made the acting chief were his 
seniors in rank, but he so dealt with this subject as to be 
free from apprehensions of any feelings of resentment ou 
their parts when the mutations of service should reverse, 
as it afterwards did, his and their positions. 

Colonel Hardie well repaid to the inspection service the 
preferment it had given him. When assailed, as it subse- 
quently and repeatedly was, both in and out of the army, 
his historical and professional studies stood it in good 



44 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

stead, aud brought to its defense the very kiud of weapons 
that it had always needed and which few, from the bent of 
their minds, were so well fitted to handle. He would show 
to disputants or critics what sudden and marked changes 
were wrought in the discipline, economy, and efficiency of 
the Revolutionary army through the laboi's of Baron 
Steuben after his appointment, at the urgent request of 
Washington, as Inspector General of the Continental army, 
and referring to the elaborate and careful provision made 
in all European armies for the dignity, power and efficiency 
of the inspection department, would argue as to the exist- 
ence of the same needs in our own military system. The 
time, patience, and labor spent by Colonel Hardie, during 
the last ten years of his life, on objects connected with the 
inspection service may, perhaps, justify what might seem 
like a digression if it did not tend to illustrate that 
conscientiousness and industry that exertid themselves 
upon every object deemed useful or pregnant, however 
lacking in the conspicuous interest required to bring the 
actor into notice. 

In the spring of 18(>-") Colonel Hardie was brevetted to 
the rank of brigadier general upon the recommendation 
of Lieutenant General Grant, and was subsequently 
advanced to the rank of brevet major general. 

An incident of General Hardie's service in the War 
Department, under Mr. Stanton, that gave him great pain, 
was the publication in a prominent New York journal 
that had a standing quarrel with the Secretary, of a 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 45 

somewhat lengthy aud detailed statement, alleging that 
Mr. Stanton had iuterferred with the religious consolations 
of the unfortunate Mrs. Surratt, after her conviction and 
sentence, by refusing a pass to her spiritual adviser to visit 
lier, unless he would promise to be silent thenceforward 
with regard to his known convictions of her innocence ; 
and that General Hardie was made the bearer of the 
shameful proposition. It is needless to say that this pub- 
lication was a scandalous perversion and misconnection of 
facts and occurrences entirely blameless in themselves, 
and was destitute of the sanction of the worthy clergyman 
who was made, by a false suggestion, to stand as sponsor 
for it. Deeply as it wounded General Hardie, and aggra- 
vated as the wound was by the wide and prolonged 
currency given to the story by the press at large, and by 
the political uses made of it, he would have borne it in 
silence, had he alone been injured, but he felt so pained 
and indignant at the baseless attack on Mr. Stanton, 
whose first knowledge of the matter actually came from 
the slanderous article itself, and who had so often, in other 
cases, acted the very reverse of the manner attributed to 
him in the article, as General Hardie well knew, that he 
resorted to the distasteful means of publishing a denial of 
the story, aud a full account of the entirely innocent 
circumstances out of which it had been constructed, over 
his own signature. This he did much more for the vindi- 
cation of his superior officer than himself, but he had his 
own consolation in the large number of letters he received 



46 JAME8 ALLEN HARDIE. 

from a viiriety of persons and places, some reminding him 
of acts he had done that might well be set circumstantially 
against those he was now accused of doing, and all ex- 
pressing disbelief that he had done anything in the matter 
of Mrs. Surratt inconsistent with the character of a 
Christian gentleman. Some friends had not even waited 
for his own explanation, but had themselves undertaken 
his defense upon their knowledge of his character. One 
fact that scarcely anybody beyond Mr. Stanton and him- 
self knew, was that, owing to his reputation as a devoted 
Catholic, among those belonging to that denomination, 
he was. constantly applied to in behalf of the spiritual 
members and establishments of that church in the South, 
who hoped to escape from some of the dangers and rigors 
entailed upon them by the state of war through an 
influential presentation of their cases at Washington. 
General Hardie, from both conscientious and prudential 
motives, rarely acted upon such cases himself, as in matters 
of secular or non-Catholic origin, but always laid them, just 
as presented to him, before the Secretary of War, whose 
patience and liberality in dealing with them excited the 
surprise as well as the admiration of his subordinate, who 
was always prone to fear that he was wearing out his 
welcome when giving the least trouble to anybody. This 
almost confidential relation between the two officials made 
the assault on Mr. Stanton, which has been mentioned, 
seem doubly grievous to his assistant, and doubtless nerved 
him to the hateful task of going before the public in de- 



.TAME8 ALLEN HARDIE. 47 

feuse of their characters. Before leaviug the subject it may 
be well, ill illustration of the nature of some of the services 
that General Hardie, in the manner stated, rendered to 
members of his church, to give the following extracts from 
letters addressed to him by the superiors of two convents 
in different parts of the country. The first extract is as 
follows : 

" Our hospital was restored to us July 1 and all arrears paid in 
full. For this, many a blessing is invoked on you by grateful 
hearts, and the little children bless the distant benefactor whom 
they may never see, but whose name they will hold in benedic- 
tion." 

The following is the second extract : 

"Memory will have failed us when we cease to be grateful for 
the kind and generous efforts you have made in our behalf. * -^ * 
Kest assured, at the foot of the altar where we so often assemble, 
the name oftenest on our lips, in petitioning for divine graces and 
blessings, shall be that of our kind benefactor." 

In the fall of 1866, the labor of disbanding the volunteer 
army and of reorganizing the regular establishment having 
been accomplished, Secretary Stanton turned his attention 
to the arsenals, for the purpose of determining what stores 
and buildings to retain, what to sell, break up, or other- 
wise dispose of, and what force of operatives and other 
employees to continue in service. In order to accurately 
inform himself on these points he associated General 
Hardie with an artillery officer of rank and reputation in 
an inspection of the forts and arsenals throughout the 
country, and this duty, with the voluminous reports it in- 



48 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

volved, occupied him for nearly six moDths. Meaotime 
the examinatioD, classification, and settlement of claims 
arising out of the war and the rebellion was becoming an 
onerous and important branch of the business connected 
with closing up the war, and, upon his return to Washing- 
ton, General Hardie was at once placed on this service. 
He was appointed the agent of the Government before the 
special commission appointed to audit the claim of the 
State of Massachusetts for arming the sea-coast against the 
threatened raids of Confederate cruisers, and was next sent 
to Kansas to investigate the claims of her citizens for 
material, supplies, and services connected with the defen- 
sive preparations made after the Quantrell and other raids 
into that State. This investigation was a model of indus- 
try, patience, and ingenuity. Under the impulse of the 
fear caused by the Confederate raids, and owing to the 
want of capable and careful officers, orders had been given 
for supplies with reckless prodigality as to quantity 
and price ; and, worse still, in many cases vouchers 
acknowledging the receipt of the goods were issued when 
the orders were given, and when, in fact, either the supplies 
were sold " to arrive," or the sellers were directed to keep 
them till wanted. Consequently the vouchers were of 
little use as evidence of facts, and it became necessary to 
reconstruct plans and estimates of the various barracks, 
stables, storehouses, and hospitals that had been erected, 
but long since removed, to see what material was actually 
used, to examine the books and papers of the claimants to 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE 49 

get at their actual transactions, and to take a vast number 
of statements and depositions of informants and witnesses. 
The result of this refining process was that the amounts 
reported by General Hardie as just and lawful were actu- 
ally paid, regardless of the vouchers; though, without 
this separation of the accounts into good, bad, and doubt- 
ful, it is not likely that any settlement could or would 
have been made at all. Something of the same experience 
was had, at later periods of his life, with the Indian war 
claims of Montana and Dakota and the " Modoc claims " 
in Oregon, all of which were audited by General Hardie, 
under various acts of Congress. 

In March, 1867, General Hardie succeeded the late 
General Canby as president of the Special Claims Commis- 
sion created in the War Department, and retained that 
position for over two years, serving, also, part of the time, 
as Inspector General on the staff of the General of the 
Army, and being sent, in that capacity, to represent the 
War Department at the councils held by the Indian Peace 
Commissioners with the hostile bands in 1867 and 1868. 
In the fall of 1869, he went to Chicago to act as Inspector 
General of the Military Division of the Missouri, under 
Lieutenant General Sheridan, and began that series of 
inspections of the military posts and establishments which, 
with the addition of special assignments, finally carried 
him to nearly every post and depot in the Indian country 
and on the Pacific coast, and which did not end till 1875. 
He was stationed at Chicago at the time of the disastrous 
9 



50 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

fire of 1<S71, and being assigned to the duty of receiving 
and issuing the relief supplies so promptly furnished by 
the Government, won golden opinions from the citizens by 
the manner in which he performed that duty, and many 
other services of a kindred nature, during that time of 
distress and disorganization. 



CHAPTER IX. 



DEATH AND FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 

Upon the completion of an especially arduous inspection 
tour in 1875, involving most of the discomforts and some 
of the dangers of an actual campaign, in Arizona and 
New Mexico, General Hardie was granted a respite from 
field labor, and an opportunity of completing his reports 
and spending some time with his fiimily at a station of his 
own choosing. He took up his residence at Philadelphia, 
and the last summer of his life — being that of 1876 — was 
spent at Haddonfield, a pretty village near that city. His 
letters from this place to his intimate friends were lively 
and interesting, and bore evidence of the peace and 
domestic enjoyment he appreciated so highly after his 
nomadic life of several years. In July he was called to 
Washington, and upon reporting, was ordered to make a 
complete military inspection of the troops and posts in the 
Southern States, for the purpose of enabling the War 
Department to consult economy of expenditure and the 
capabilities of company officers in the movements and 
distributions about to be ordered by the political depart- 
ment of the Government. It was on this trip that he is 
thought to have caught the malarial taint that was the 
predisposing cause of his subsequent fatal illness. In 



52 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

September, 1876, after his southern inspectiou was com- 
pleted, he was ordered on duty in the Inspector General's 
Bureau at Washington, and, leaving his family to follow 
later in the fall, reported at once and entered upon service. 
He soon developed symptoms of jaundice, but supposing 
them to be the outcome of the malaria taken in the system 
on his southern trip, and which the frosts of the approach- 
ing winter would destroy, he resisted the advice of friends 
to resort to medical assistance, and struggled along, un- 
complaining, and deprecating the anxiety of his family, 
who had joined him, till towards the end of the first week 
in December, when he took to his bed and a physician was 
sent for by the family without informing him. The de- 
rangement of the liver had become so acute that the 
physician at once detected the hopelessness of the case, 
but miscalculating by some days the duration of life, pre- 
served silence for the time being. 

On Wednesday, December 13, the patient was cheerful, 
interested in the affairs of life, and active enough to read 
the newspapers himself. The next day, though weaker 
and occasionally delirious, his condition was not alarming, 
and the physician, at his late evening call, found nothing 
to excite apprehension of an unquiet night. But soon after 
the physician had left, Mrs. Hardie, who was in personal 
attendance in the sick-room, noticed an unusual disturb- 
ance on the part of the patient, who was moving uneasily 
and moaning, and almost as soon as she reached the bed- 
side, and before Mr. Connolly, an old soldier of the Third 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 53 

Artillery, and for many years a faithful subordinate and 
companion of the General's, could fairly get in from the 
adjoining room, the husband of the one and old com- 
mander of the other was dead. There is no reason to 
believe that he anticipated a fatal result to his illness, and 
at the moment of death he was unconscious. But from 
the days of his youth upwards, and especially during the 
last thirty years of his life, he had so lived that let death 
come when and how it might, it would not find him unpre- 
pared. On his behalf, therefore, the deprivation of time 
and knowledge is no source of regret — it is only they 
whose bereavement might have been softened by antici- 
pation and the presence of sustaining friends that demand 
our sympathies for an irreparable and untimely loss. 

The funeral services took place at St. Matthew's Church, 
which General Hardie and family always attended when 
resident at Washington, on Sunday afternoon the 17th of 
December, and were as quiet, simple and sincere, as the 
man himself The military escort, suitable to the rank of 
the deceased, which General Sherman kindly offered, was 
declined, and the only military feature of the funeral pro- 
cession was the detachment of eight artillerymen that 
served as coffin-bearers at the house, the church, and the 
cemetery in which the remains were temporarily deposited, 
to be thereafter removed to the family burial place near 
New York. Eight pall-bearers were selected from the 
army and navy officers resident at Washington, at the 
head of whom stood two devoted and almost life-long 



54 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

friends, General Sherman and Adjutant General Townsend. 
All that savored of display was excluded from the last, 
sad offices, and none but sincere mourners found induce- 
ment to share in the final duties to the earthly remains of 
the dead. That these were numerous is the greater tribute 
to the virtues of him who alone was tranquil throughout 
the trying scene, nor has absence prevented others, as 
sincere and devoted, from giving fit expression to their 
sorrow for him who has departed, and sympathy with 
those who remain. Such consolations as are possible to a 
stricken household, this household have in abundance — 
generous tributes to virtues and talents which, however 
modestly exercised, were yet not hid — the silent contem- 
plation, as well as the discussion in the broken family 
circle, of those acts and traits that made up the sum of a 
life so well spent as almost to deserve the appellation of 
perfect, and the daily resolutions and eflTorts of those to 
whom he has left the precious legacy of a " good name 
among men " to so order their lives as that they may not 
seem unworthy beside his own. 

Upon earlier pages of this volume have been spread the 
testimonials of distinguished officers to the merits and 
talents of the then Colonel Hardie, when it was thought 
by his immediate superiors that the time had come when 
he should be advanced to higher rank and a larger field 
of action. His death gave one more, and probably the 
last occasion for the formal expression by men eminent in 
his own profession, of their view of his military character, 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 55 

aud as a period of fourteen years had intervened between 
the two occasions, it cannot be otherwise than interesting 
to quote from these later testimonials in the same manner 
as before. The following extracts are therefore given : 

" Our acquaintance began in 1839, at West Point, where we 
were both cadets, and from that date to the day of his death, 
with brief intervals, we served in the same general sphere of 
action, * * * so that I think I can bear the fullest testimony 
to his worth as a military officer and gentleman. He was always 
noted for his zeal and marked intelligence, self-denying and 
laborious." — General Sherman, 

" General Hardie's whole history, from his entry into the army 
in 1843, until his death, a period of over thirty-three years, shows 
a conscientious devotion to every duty to which he was assigned. 

* * * His death was a great loss to the Government, as no one 
in its service was more faithful and honest." — Lieut. General 
Shekidan. 

" He was an officer of marked ability, and rendered most 

valuable service. Not only was he able, but he was also most 

laborious, attentive and indefatigable." — Major General Mr- 
Clellan. 

" During his service of more than thirty years he took an hon- 
orable part in the Mexican war, in operations against hostile 
Indians in Washington and Oregon Territories, and in our late 
civil war. * ^ ^ He was entrusted with many responsible and 
important duties, which he performed with intelligence, zeal, and 
fidelity. He was an officer of irreproachable character and con- 
duct." — Major General Hancock. 

" My acquaintance with General Hardie commenced when he 
joined the First Artillery at Houlton, Maine, July '43, and con- 
Liuued throughout his lifetime. * * * I goon became a great 
admirer of his from his many noble qualities. I always found 
him honorable, generous, brave, and devoted to his profession. * 

* * I question if the Government ever had in its service a more 
conscientious and devoted servant." — Major General Hooker. 



r>6 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

" General Hardie's scsrvice was a peculiaily lioiiorable iind 
meritorious one, without being of the kind which brought his 
name prominently before the public. * * * In the first battle 
of Fredericksburg, December 13, 18^52, General Burnside sent 
him to be near me during the day, and I can vouch for the fact 
that no one excelled him during that fearful fight in bravery and 
coolness. * * * He was as honest and conscientious an officer 
as ever held a commission He was a master of the military pro- 
fession, and as well versed in military law and in the innumerable 
details of an officer's duties as any man in service. He brought 
all his ability to bear in the transaction of the Government busi- 
ness, and his example should be commended to young officers." — 
Major General Franklin. 

" I knew him well from early in 1862, when he was on duty in 
the Adjutant General's Department, at the headquarters of the 
Army of the Potomac, where 1 witnessed the faithful, conscien- 
tious and efficient manner in which he performed the duties of 
his position, not only acceptably to the commander of the army 
and chief of his own department, but to every one who had 
dealings at the headquarters, thus winning the confidence and 
esteem of all. And this same faithful, patient and efficient 
service he continued to the last." — Major General Humphreys. 

" General Hardie's death has deprived the army of an officer 
of large experience, thorough knowledge of our military insti- 
tutions, and of the personnel of the army, and of a gentleman 
who will be remembered with honor and affection at almost every 
military post from the Atlantic to the Pacific."— Quartermaster 
General Meigs. 



CHAPTER X. 



PERSONAL TRA.ITS AND CHARACTERISTICS. 

In person, General Hardie was of prepossessing and 
rather distinguished appearance, of medium height and 
build, and, in later years, with the stoop of the scholar and 
sedentary. This came naturally, for the pen was seldom 
out of his hand except upon compulsion of duty or cir- 
cumstance, or in exchange for a book. His countenance 
was animated and pleasing, and a slight setting forward of 
the ears, and a noticeable twinkling of the eyes, gave his 
face a humorous expression in keeping with his life-long 
propensity to see the amusing side of everything. This 
propensity, though properly kept in bounds by the force of 
his intellectual and moral character, was to a large extent 
the inducing cause of that cheerful and elastic tempera- 
ment that made him so welcome and helpful a companion 
amid difficult and discouraging surroundings. He had a 
broad, intellectual forehead, and this, with the flowing 
military whiskers and moustache that he habitually wore, 
happily relieved and carried off a tendency of his features 
towards an overfull and fleshly look, at variance with his 
habits and disposition. His eyes were gray and deeply 
set, his nose inclined to the aquiline cast, his mouth was 
firm and his chin unusually broad, as well as full. His 

hair was light brown and his complexion florid, and be 
10 



58 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

looked the Scotchman that he was by descent on the pater- 
nal side. His manner was quiet, graceful, and unstudied. 
He was the most accessible of men and always interesting 
in conversation, though not stilted on the one hand or 
flippant on the other. He neither paraded his knowledge, 
nor drew attention to it by affecting to be ignorant. Only 
the studious would know him for a student and the learned 
for a scholar. That he was a gentleman in the nobler 
sense of that term a very short acquaintance woukl reveal, 
nor was he lacking in anything that pertained to the out- 
ward demeanor and appearance of one; yet so plain was 
he in dress and bearing that it would require more than 
one look at him to fix his profession or calling, or his place 
in society. The loftiness of his moral sentiments he could 
not have concealed if he would, for they were his work-a- 
day garments and not a mere holiday suit ; but so free 
were his casual utterances from dogmatism that he might 
as readily be taken by strangers for a utilitarian as the 
devout religionist that he was in profession and practice. 
Though sincerity was a guiding principle of his intercourse 
with his fellow-men, the unconscious mobility of his de- 
meanor was such that he always seemed at home in what- 
ever society chance had for the moment placed him, and 
his disregard of small discomforts and vexatious, and his 
sociability with all who observed the cardinal forms of 
propriety, no matter who and what they were, made him 
a delightful and interesting fellow-traveller. In all situa- 
tions, his manner and conversation were so considerate and 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 59 

helpful that, though he bore uuwelcome news, the unhappy 
subject of his errand was glad, at least, that he had come. 
Those duties of benevolence and charity that he executed 
with the fidelity of a religious devotee he was mindful of 
even in his speech, and no man ever lived closer up to the 
benevolent axiom : 

" Count that day lost, whose low, declining sun 
Views, from thy hand, no generous action done ! '" 

His early ideas as to the original nobility, if not actual 
divinity, of human nature colored his entire intercourse 
with his fellow-man, and made courtesy not only a pleasing 
form, but a sacred duty to all, however humble, or, per- 
chance, erring. Indeed, towards human failings of every 
kind he was uniformly patient and charitable, but for 
meanness of character, or any form of wilful, deliberate 
depravity, had that open and hearty detestation which w^as 
but one proof among many of his possession of the strong, 
Anglo-Saxon common sense that gives full play to benevo- 
lence, while keeping a firm hand upon any tendency to 
vapid sentimentalism. 

In matters of taste. General Hardie was as robust as his 
way of life, his lines of study and investigation, and his 
intellectual bias would naturally make him. Under some 
circumstances he might have grown austere, but from 
austerity he was saved by his lively interest in human life 
and toil, and by that keen sense of humor to which refer- 
ence has been made already. Although he readily 



60 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

adapted himself to his surroundings, and could rough it 
with the best, and be the most cheerful of men under the 
most discouraging circumstances, he relished highly the 
quietness, grace, and dignity that always mark the pres- 
ence of true gentility, and it was when enjoying these that 
he himself was at his best. In all matters that fall within 
the cognizance of taste his intuitions were wonderfully 
correct, and despite his isolation from the centres of civil- 
ization during the larger part of his life, and his almost 
incessant employment, he contrived to keep himself abreast 
of current knowledge throughout the domains of culture. 
But, then, he wasted no time upon inferior products of 
either art or literature, and had little patience with those 
who did. With the treasures of human genius over- 
abundant, he could not brook the encouragement given to 
the heaping up of dross. Among the gentler arts he 
loved music best, and in music his taste was for the grand 
and solemn rather than the sweet and melodious. It was 
the same with poetry, to the reading of which he was not 
much given, though he had a fair acquaintance with and 
earnest appreciation of the higher poets and their loftier 
themes. Only once in his life did he ever copy verses, and 
they were some that fell under his notice but a few months 
before his death, and at a time when his thoughts were 
turned towards the theme of mortality by the sudden tak- 
ing-off of a intimate friend, and a marked decline in his 
own health that proved to be the forerunner of his fatal 
disorder. The copy so made he sent to a sister of his 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 61 

deceased friend with a letter of condolence, and it is 
characteristic of his antipathy to sentimentalism in general 
that he justifies the act of sending the verses, not only by 
hoping that they might have their little influence upon a 
sorrowing mind, but by calling attention to the solid 
earnestness and the real philosophy that set off the mere 
beauty of expression and balance the poetic afliatus. 
These verses, which were published in 1870, in the London 
Magazine, " St. Pauls," with only the initials J. P. to 
indicate the author, are appended. 

UNTIL THE DAY BREAK. 

Will it pain me then forever, 

Will it leave me happy never, 
This weary, weary, gnawing of the old, dull pain ? 

Will the sweet, yet bitter yearning. 

That at my heart is burning, 
Throb on and on forever, and forever be in vain ? 

weary, weary longing ! 

O sad, sweet memories thronging 
From the sunset-lighted woodlands of the dear and holy past ! 

hope and faith undying ! 

Shall I never cease from sighing ? 
Must my lot among the shadows forevermore be cast ? 

Shall I never see the glory 

That the Christ-knight of old story, 
Sir Galahad, my hero, saw folded round his sleep ? 

The full completed beauty 

With which God gilds dull duty 
For hearts that burn towards heaven from the everlasting deep. 

From the conflict ceasing never, 
From the toil increasing ever, 



62 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

From the hard and bitter battle with the cold and callous world ? 

Will the sky grow never clearer ? 

Will the hills draw never nearer 
Where the golden city glitters, in its rainbow mists impearled ? 

Ah me ! that golden city ! 

Can God, then, have no pity? 
I have sought it with such yearning for so many bitter years ! 

And yet the hills' blue glimmer, 

And the portals' golden shimmer, 
Fade ever with the evening, and the distance never nears ! 

O weary, weary living ! 

O foemen unforgiving ! 
O enemies that meet me on the earth and in the air ! 

flesh, that clogs my yearning ! 

O weakness, aye returning ! 
Will ye never cease to trouble ? Will ye never, never, spare ? 

Will my soul grow never purer ? 

Will my hope be never surer ? 
Will the mist-wreaths and the cliff-gates from my path be never 
rolled ? 

Shall I never, never win it. 

That last ecstatic minute. 
When the journey's guerdon waits me behind the hills of gold ? 

Alas ! the clouds grow darker, 

And the hills loom ever starker 
Across the leaden mist-screen of the heavens, dull and gray ! 

— Thou must learn to bear thy burden, 

Thou must wait to win thy guerdon, 
Until the daybreak cometh, and the shadows flee away ! 

In bis habits, General Hardie was plain, frugal, and 
remarkably industrious. His hand and brain were forever 
busy, and recreation meant not repose, but change of 
employment. He was a fluent writer, as well as a prolific 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 63 

one, and besides the ease and directness of his style, there 
were both a quaintness and liveliness of expression that 
made his letters always interesting to the reader. Exigen- 
cies of time and space forbid an effort to collect for 
publication large selections from his correspondence, but 
the following are given, — the first as illustrating the 
manner in which he met the difficulty of expressing 
heartfelt sympathy for a bereaved household in natural 
and sincere language ; and the second as giving his views 
concerning that awful change in his own state of existence 
that was so soon to overtake him. 

To the mother of the friend whose death has been 
alluded to, he writes in these terms : 

" I know how very empty are words of human consolation in 
a trial such as yours. But, then, I want to express to you my 
deep sorrow that this bereavement has been sent to you, so unan- 
ticipated, and in the order of nature a calamity it would not 
have been expected to call on you to encounter. But your son — 
it should make you proud, even in the depth of your affliction 
to think of — was eminent in his vocation, distinguished among 
men, pure in his conscience ; and he maintained, from first to 
last, too, the elevated state of a true gentleman. That such a 
useful and honorable man should be called early from his earthly 
sphere to the society of the brightest and best of our humanity, 
who are safe everlastingly in the enjoyment of a happiness of 
which, it is said, that we cannot conceive of its height ; that a 
man so much beloved by mother and brothers and sisters and 
wife and children, should have so soon gone before, all is a 
mystery that human respect and affection cannot comprehend. 
But, you know, the issues of life and death are in the hands of 
the Creator— when He calls, we must go. At the best, a few 
years or a few days are very little to us, and we may find repose 



64 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

in the thought that we get to the end. If we believe that there 
is an end worth having, surely it is the better for us. 

" I do not for a moment suppose that I can measure the extent 
of your affliction. But I try to think it out. I have had yny 
experiences. It is utterly useless to try to stop the flood of grief 
by anything I could say or do ; I can only oft'er you the expression 
of my profound sympathies, and through you, to all who know 
you as their centre. * * I am sure that the beneficent Creator 
means this event for good. That you can see it, and that He will 
give 3'ou and yours strength and consolation is m\' sincere wish." 

Of his owD state of miud towards death, he thus speaks 
iu the letter accompauyiug the verses lately quoted : 

" I have a very keen desire to live, and E am certainly grateful 
that I am as well as I am. But I have been so often and so close 
up to death, and have Jiadio face it, that I don't think it can ever 
alarm me. I have been looked at by a physician, indeed, and 
told I must die. Then shot and shell kill people, and I have had 
to contemplate my almost certain destruction from these. 

" Not that I feel that I am better than the rest. O no ! And 
life has always been sweet to me. There's nothing morbid about 
me. I have the happiest home ; moderate comfort ; means not 
large, but sufficient for the day. Yet, when the time comes, I 
will try to have my knapsack packed and to march off under my 
orders. Surely, I shall have no chance for a good post in the 
" ewigkeit " but in my share in the Kedeemer's wonderful scheme 
of humanity's redemption ; yet, surely, I will trust my luck. 

" Now, this dread idea of death — an event which, as a fact, is 
recognized as certain by people, but hardly ever realized — sets us 
all astray. But if Christianity amounts to " a row of pins," why 
shouldn't we wayit to go to a place where we are better oft' than 
we are here, when we have got through our task here ? Is 
Christianity a failure ? To us ? 

" This is a life of trouble, anyway, and we have to stand trouble 
to the end. I just now feel, in these days of accusation, when 
every blackmailer can assail one, that m^ trust in the future is a 
happier foundation for a reasonable condition of comfort than 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 65 

my confidence in the present. I think, even, I would like to get 
out." * * * 

In his public correspoudeiiee he was uot always so plain 
and felicitous as in his private writings. He seemed appre- 
hensive that words used by hira in one sense might be taken 
in another, or inferences drawn from them that he had no 
thought of suggesting, and that somebody might be pained 
or prejudiced thereby without his intending it in the least ; 
hence, in the effort to make his phrases and sentences 
absolutely unmistakable and innocuous, he would change 
and refine them till their pith and point were oft-times 
gone. Still, this dilution of the style, when it occurred, 
never extended to the matter itself, and his official papers 
were always models in the sense of exhibiting masterly 
knowledge of the subjects to which they related, and clear 
conceptions of the relations of cause and effect as con- 
nected with them. Where, too, the topics discussed were 
such as gave no occasion for such fears as just described, 
the style was as easy, direct, and flowing as the most hyper- 
critical taste could desire. This literary blemish, if it may 
rightly be so called, was due to the reflex action of his 
own super-sensitive mind, which made him so quick to 
feel criticism or reproach, that an unguarded word or 
gesture from a superior, or one of any rank whom he held 
in esteem, threw him at once off the balance established 
by his even, cheerful temper, and made him wretched. 
Closely connected with this delicate trait of character was 
the scrupulous and sincere respect that he always paid to 
11 



QQ JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

authority of any grade or form. He often lamented the 
decline of authority, not only in matters of faith, but 
matters of government also, and feared that it was loosen- 
ing the bonds of society as well as religion. He contended 
that it was better for men to sometimes bestow their allegi- 
ance unwisely than to lose the habit of allegiance altogether. 
General Hardie was endowed by nature with rare intel- 
lectual powers, which he improved by sedulous cultivation 
all his life. His knowledge was not only extensive, but 
always solid, and, in respect to those subjects in which he 
took a professional or personal interest, usually profound. 
His memory, though not phenomenal, was good, and he 
possessed the higher faculty of so applying his reason to 
the analysis and concentration of whatever came within 
the range of his observation or hearing, as to have the 
virtual command, at any moment, of all he ever knew 
upon a given subject. Indeed, it was a frequent experience 
to find himself so embarrassed with material for argument 
or illustration, drawn from memory, or gleaned by his 
wonderful industry in research and accumulation, as to be 
unable to use it all within the limits of the topic in hand. 
Hence his writings were never padded with empty words, 
even if otherwise defective. With regard to the art of 
reasoning, his preference was for the synthetical over the 
analytical method, and he often remarked that the syn- 
thetical was the method of great intellects and great results, 
while the analytical was the method of plodding, if useful, 
minds. His mental bias was realistic rather than imagin- 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 67 

ative, and hi;^ dogged conservatism on all matters connected 
with the problems of human life was little lesss than 
maddening to enthusiasts and reformers generally. He 
contended, with respect to the human mind and conscience, 
that mankind would continue to be impelled by the same 
desires, restrained by the same fears, and controlled by 
the same agencies as of old, modified only in degree and 
not in kind, or in form and not in substance, and that the 
growth and spread of religious infidelity was dangerous to 
the body politic, in undermining the ancient foundations 
of society without putting anything solid and adaptable 
in their places. He had no faith in the earthly millenium 
which so many anticipate as the ultimate, occult conse- 
quence of the vast intellectual movements now in progress, 
and though he kept himself in line with the scientists in 
the onward march of their methods and discoveries, he 
declined to take part in the projection of the scientific 
mind beyond the visible and firm ground of fact. His 
commentary upon the famous Belfast address of Professor 
Tyndall was that when it came to going beyond demon- 
strative knowledge and taking to faith, he preferred the 
old faith, which, apart from the respect due to its age, 
had more of hope and consolation in it for human kind 
than anything he had been able to discern in the newly- 
evolved " scientific creeds." As illustrative of his 
sympathy for human life as it is, it may be mentioned that 
his interest in scientific progress was always most active 
with regard to inventions and discoveries calculated to 



68 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

ameliorate the lot of man in his earthly state, as we now 
know it, and he often spoke of the probability of the 
electric force proving to be the beneficient agent of the 
near future for lightening the toils and multiplying the 
physical blessings of mankind. An amusing instance of 
his persistency in taking an earthly view of human 
motives is connected with the secession of the once famous 
Pere Hyacinth, from the Catholic church. To a friend 
who sought to obtain his view of the origin and result of 
what was then the nine days' wonder of the secular as well 
as the religious world, he made answer in about the 
following words : " The explanation is easy enough. It 
has happened with the pert? as with others of his kind 
before him. There is a woman in the case. He wants to 
marry, and is raising a dust of controversy to cover his 
real motive. He'll get married, and that will be the end 
of him and his new church." From this purely human 
and abased view of the matter he refused to be moved, nor 
would he discuss the subject further,. g'ld so soon did the 
perfe turn himself into a husband, and his critic into a 
prophet, that the trouble of refusing to talk about the 
matter was soon spared to the latter. 

Two qualities of General Hardie's mind deserve some 
notice, as they were chiefly instrumental, it is believed, in 
preventing him from reaching to that degree of eminence 
outside the ranks of his own profession that his character 
and talent earned for him within it. The first was a shy- 
ness or self-distrust, that would not only have restrained 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 69 

him from pushing himself into notice in any immodest or 
unduly selfish manner in the absence of any higher re. 
straint, but which kept him back from that degree of self- 
seeking which is universally regarded as natural and proper 
when both the objects and the means pursued are honor- 
able. Except where his professional or personal reputation 
was concerned, he was not a self-regarding man, but 
seemed always content to do his whole duty in whatever 
station he might be called to fill, and, having thus satisfied 
his conscience, to leave all else to Providence and those set 
over him in authority. Such preferment as he got usually 
came to him unsolicited and unexpected, and there are 
instances in his career where he retired, or attempted to 
retire, from advantageous positions which he thought he 
could not hold consistently with honor. One such instance 
is notable as occurring in his younger days, when such 
ambition as a man has is strongest, and apt to outweigh 
more delicate sensibilities. He sought to resign the adju- 
tantcy of his regimc-t and return to a lower place in the 
line, because he suspected that the regimental commander, 
who had selected him for that position, had been supplanted 
in the command by means not entirely open and fair, and 
he only abandoned the design when the new commandant 
at headquarters, apparently won by the frankness and 
sensitiveness of the young oflicer, condescended to vindicate 
himself from suspicions which, however plausible, were 
unfounded. This incident, too, furnished an early but not 
the only proof that its subject neither worshipped the rising 



70 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

sun, uor turned his back upon the sun that was declining. 
The other quality referred to as having au appreciable 
influence in keeping him back from opportunities of public 
distinction was a mental timidity that made him shrink 
from venturing what he had for the prospect of gaining 
by the venture. It is possible that the crash of his father's 
fortunes, at an age when he was young enough to receive 
a lasting impression of its consequences, may have had 
something to do with this bent of his mind ; but whatever 
the cause, it is certain that his aversion to speculative en- 
terprises and experiments generally was marked in his own 
conduct and his counsel to others. Had these mental 
qualities of shyness and timidity been unbalanced by those 
other qualities of mind and heart that made him cheerful 
and contented in toiling on zealously in whatsoever situa- 
tion fate had placed him, he might have chafed at the 
limits set to the exercise of his industry and talent, and 
the results derivable therefrom, and so have substituted a 
morose and ignoble existence for the full, rounded, and 
edifying life that he really lived. 

The fact has escaped mention in a more appropriate 
place that, in his early years. General Hardie was destined 
for the profession of the law and his youthful studies were 
that way directed. All his life he was a lover and student 
of that lofty science, and his legal attainments were such 
as to command the attention and respect of men eminent 
in their vocation as lawyers. 

General Hardie's life was so much influenced by his 



.TAMES ALLEN HARDIE. *^ 

religious character that any account of liim, however brief, 
would be incomplete without .some mention of it. From 
his boyhood he was pious and always interested in the out- 
ward observances of religion. His father was a member 
of the Episcopal congregation of Grace Church, New 
York, and the son also joined the same communion. His 
musical and artistic tastes were gratified i)y the ceremonies 
and customs of the Episcopal church, and the same tastes 
led him to favor the ritualistic movements then beginning 
to be active. A visit of the famous Dr. Pusey to West 
Point while he was a cadet had a powerful influence in 
wedding him to the views of that eminent divine, and as 
with so many of the latter's followers, the route pursued 
led him at last into the communion of the Catholic church. 
His open adherence to that church did not occur till he 
had thoroughly satisfied the demands of his mind and con- 
science as to the wisdom and righteousness of the step, and 
he entered it so fully prepared and persuaded, that the 
mental peace and happiness that it brought him were 
never thereafter marred by a doubt or regret. Being 
always religious, as well as high-minded, no radical change 
in his outward life was wrought by his public profession of 
Catholicism, but his intellectual activities were quickened 
in the investigation of religious truth, and he busied him- 
self in religious enterprises and sought the companionship 
and correspondence of pious Catholics, both among the 
clergy and laity. With many such men he formed life- 
long friendships and the records of these intimacies bear 



7^ JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

convincing testimony to the sincerity, purity, and fervor of 
his and their religious characters. An extract from a 
letter sent him by a former fellow cadet at West Point, in 
1850, in answer to a request for information upon some 
religious subject, will admirably suggest the kind of men 
and the topics that engaged his affections after his pro- 
fession of the Catholic faith. After referring him to some 
other co-religionist, the letter continues : 

" If my present condition justified my dictating any instruc- 
tions, I would gladly do it, but the state of my lungs will not 
permit it. I am lingering out my existence here and expect only 
to live a few days longer. You must pray for me, especially after 
I am dead, and when I get to heaven I will take care not to forget 
you." 

Some readers of this little volume may gain a new idea 
of the life and character of the Catholic clergy, from a 
perusal of the following charming letter from one of that 

profession : 

" East Boston, December 20, 1856. 
" My Dear Captain H. 

" Delighted I am to hear of your address, and more, of the 
excellent health enjoyed by yourself and amiable partner; and 
as to the little ones, — I know not how many, — may every 
blessing, spiritual and temporal, be with you. Had I written as 
often as prayed that success might attend your every movement, 
you would have a folio ere this. It is only now I learned of 
your location, though sometime since I heard with joy of your 
promotion. 

" You perceive that I, too, write from another quarter, but 
still working on in the same sphere. Born with a little bit of a 
mallet, my forte seems to be pioneering ; still thumping among 
stone and mortar. All having been completed at Newport, 
quite unexpectedly to myself, I was requested by authority to 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 73 

remove to this city to undertake another church. Upon this, I 
have amused myself for the past sixteen months and have taken 
possession. The congregation being about five thousand, the 
church just completed, is of course larger than that of New- 
port, and though Gothic, and of solid material — granite — it is of 
early pointed style, and consequently admits of less ornament ; 
though it is pronounced the handsomest building in the city. 
That may be for others to look upon, but in reality, " our Lady 
of the Isle," is the gem. Too happy and comfortable was I, a 
wretched sinner, to be permitted to remain at that quiet, lovely, 
retired island home. 

"If, in the estimation of others, I was needed here, my good 
fortune in the exchange added fifty-odd thousand dollars to my 
credit as financier, as I found that debt was to be assumed soon 
after my exchange. So thus am I doomed to pick up the load of 
others and move onwards ; and when, with a little disappoint- 
ment I told the Bishop of my surprise, he looked very compla- 
cently, and kindly said : Oh ! You'll put it through ! 

" Well ! well ! and this is all ego, ego, as usual. But what of 
your family and numbers ? How like you California ? Would 
that I was permitted to look upon you all once more ! And who 
knows what changes may be yet in futuro ? 

" Of our mutual friend Ros^ I have not heard for a long, long 
while, nor do I know of his whereabouts, but wherever he may 
be, he is indomitable in his perseverance of well doing — I know 
he must be. 

" Do at some leisure moment let us hear from you ; while, with 
dearest remembrances, I remain, sincerely. 



The journals left by General Hardie contain fragments 
of a study on the religious basis of the civil power as the 
only valid claim to obedience, but his democratic principles 
were strong enough to qualify the position taken by re- 
quiring likewise the consent of the governed. He pub- 
lished also, while in California, an article in the 
12 



74 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

"Freeman's Journal" of New York, on the oppressive 
bearing upon the consciences of the Catholic soldiers, who 
constituted so large a part of the rank and file of the 
army, of the regulations concerning attendance upon 
divine worship, and the custom of appointing j^ermanent 
post chaplains and choosing them exclusively from 
Protestant denominations. No Catholic could write on 
such a subject with a freer conscience than himself, for 
bigotry never found a lodgment in his constitution. He 
gave to merit and sincerity all that they were worth, and 
was notably free from prejudices of race or religion. His 
friendships were among men of all beliefs and opinions 
and he never in the slightest degree infringed upon that 
freedom of conscience and religious choice that he regarded 
as among the greatest of temporal blessings. Some 
friends, not Catholics, and among them the writer of this 
Memoir, have at times wondered how a man of such 
liberality, independence, and learning managed to submit 
himself to what they had been taught to regard as the 
dogmatic tyranny of an oligarchy of priests, and what his 
account of his experiences and feelings about it would be 
if he ever revealed them. Happily for his sincerity and 
intellectual fame he did commit them briefly to paper a 
few months before his death in a letter to a valued friend 
in whom he seemed to have discovered the existence of the 
curiosity above mentioned. In the belief that the publica- 
tion of this letter to his friends who are to be the readers 
of this Memoir is the readiest and most satisfactory way 



JAMES AI.LEN HARDIE. 75 

of doing him justice in respect to the most important and 
delicate act of judgment to be exercised in respect to his 
character, all the material and relevant parts of the letter 
are here given. 

In seeming reply to a criticism upon the dogma of the 
papal infallibility, and the compulsory force of dogmas 
generally, he says : 

" Now, as to the power of the church, there is no more tyranny 
in the being obliged to submit to the truth as one sees it in 
religion, than there is in your being obliged to recognize mathe- 
matical truth in the multiplication table. Practical experience 
exhibits the entire freedom otherwise of the Catholic organization, 
so far as the laity is concerned. No priest or bishop ever spoke 
politics to me in all my life, unless we might meet socially and 
an opinion might be expressed. The papal infallibility is only 
the insisting of a decision of the head of the supreme bench of 
the church being binding, when the case is formally brought up. 
In administration, the Pope may make mistakes, and he does so, 
I know, in some instances, in ecclesiastical appointments. It is 
only in faith and morals, where there must be doubts and where 
there must be the right to settle them in the organization, that 
the authority to settle questions is confined to the head of the 
church. There is a charming freedom in worship ; nobody pays 
attention to anybody else. There are no social tyrannies in the 
case. 

"That human motives control human actions in the use or 
abuse of authority in the case of the clergy is certainly true. But 
the history of all denominations shows that grace does'nt always 
prevail over the carnalism of our poor nature, however high 
may be our place in the sanctuary. '^ "^ ^ Indeed, if the beauty 
of Catholicism hadn't been besmirched by the unworthiness of the 
clergy and laity often, and by the intrusion into its administration 
of secularism — often a necessity of charity originally, and then 
crystallized upon its organization as a matter of course — there 
would have been no ' raison d'Hre ' for any separation. It is for 



76 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

every Catholic to say ' tnea culpa ! mea culpa ! niea tnaxhna 
culpa!' If from the time of the first Bishop of Kome we had 
done our square work, we should not, in our old age, be naked 
before our enemies. The fact is, thore is too much of small truth 
told against us, and we must reap the harvest. 

" But, after all, we believe in the efficacy of the Saviour's most 
condescendingly generous mission, and we believe that his blood, 
so copiously and lovingly poured out for our miserable humanity's 
redemption, was not poured out in vain. We believe that He has 
not been a failure, and most of us mean to do what He has 
directed, even in ever so poor a way, sometimes very badly, 
sometimes not at all, but always getting up when we fall and 
starting anew. And so we believe God will save us, if we mean 
salvation." 

His rejection of the scientific creeds of the present day 
has been mentioned some pages back, and in the letter 
now before us he alludes to them in the following 
words : 

" Now, about belief, what I think is simply this, — the trouble 
is not that some believe too little, and others believe what many 
think is too much, but that most are getting not to believe at all ; 
G-od is left out of his own creation. There are no moral standards 
better than those of the Spartans set up among the mott 
honorable of the non-believers and the scientists now accepted as 
teachers. Think ! what will be the condition of a society which 
knows not God and His laws, in half a century ? Naturally go 
back to the times of old Pagan Rome with its nameless infamies 
in personal life and the social organization." 

It is probable that among the influences that contributed 
to the bringing in of General Hardie to the Catholic fold 
was his personal experience and observation of the piety, 
zeal, and devotion of the missionary priests who had been 
for so many decades laborers and even martyrs among the 



JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 77 

Indian tribes of the Northwest, and certainly if anything 
can inspire trust in the Christian faith as worked out in 
the Catholic organization it is a view of the labors and 
achievements of the Jesuit missions among the North 
American Indians. One of his long time and close friends 
among these missionaries was the well known and vener- 
ated Father De Smet, through whose personal solicitation 
of the Pope in 1865 he received some of those marks of 
religious favor that are so gratifying to pious and devout 
Catholics whose virtues are thus recognized. 

The moral constitution of General Hardie would have 
made him generous and charitable, whatever his religious 
creed, but what, in the absence of religious feelings, might 
have been a mere intellectual gratification became, as well, 
a pious duty. He never turned away a street beggar 
empty-handed, lest, as he explained in self defense, he 
might in his ignorance fail in giving to the worthy. As a 
friend who knew him thoroughly fervidly expresses it, " he 
wanted always to do and to be right." At one time when 
the public necessity had led to the most stringent orders 
from the Secretary of War against the further discharge 
of soldiers on any grounds other than expiration of service 
or disability, he took such pity upon a poor woman who 
had found her way to the War Department upon what 
seemed to be a hopeless errand, that, not venturing to 
incur the risk of a personal rebuff, he sent the following 
message to the Secretary's private room, written on an 
envelope : 



78 JAMES ALLEN HARDIE. 

" There is a woman, sick and poor, in the room here, who has 
four sons in the military and naval service. She begs, for the 
sake of charity, to let the youngest go. Shall I do it ? It seems 
so hard a case that I cannot resist this appeal." 

The answer came out at once to discharge the boy and 
the poor woman was sent off rejoicing. 

Here, in the contemplation of that noblest of the 
Christian virtues, Charity, fittingly may end this brief but 
earnest tribute to the memory of a man whom it would 
not have been unseemly to call great, had not the ambition 
and greed of mankind resulted in restricting the ordinary 
use of that term to its lower and narrower meanings. For 
what has written the fervent pen of Channing, himself 
incontestably great in every meaning of the word ? 

" There are difterent orders of greatness. Among these, the 
first rank is unquestionably due to moral greatness, or magna- 
nimity, that sublime energy by which the soul, smitten with the 
love of virtue, binds itself indissolubly, for life and death, to truth 
and duty ;* espouses as its own the interests of human nature; 
scorns all meanness and defies all peril ; hears in its own conscience 
a voice louder than threatenings and thunders ; withstands all the 
powers of the universe which would sever it from the cause of 
freedom and religion ; reposes an unfaltering trust in God in the 
darkest hour, and is ever ready to be offered upon the altar of its 
country or of mankind " 

For this sublime study of true greatness, the man whose 
name adorns these pages might have stood as the living 
and complete model. And — to use his own words — "that 
such a useful and honorable man should be called early 
from his earthly sphere " would be a profounder source of 



.TAMES ALLEN HARLHE. 79 

grief than those who knew and loved him now feel it, 
were it not for the consoling reflection that only the inferior 
and the perishable parts of him are lost to earth, while 
the better and the lasting parts remain to them and to 
mankind. All that he ever bestowed upon his fellow-men of 
help, encouragement, sympathy, and example is as potent 
as when he dwelt among them, and the countless influences 
that went out from him while he lived will not perish now 
that he is dead. These comforting thoughts, struggling 
for means of expression, will find none more eloquent or 
fitting than in these words of another great divine, who, 
for the solace and inspiration of the living, made himself 
the masterly interpreter of the Voices of the Dead : 

" The friend with whom we took sweet counsel is removed 
visibly from the outward eye ; but the lessons that he taught, the 
grand sentiments that he uttered, the holy deeds of generosity by 
which he was characterized, the moral lineaments and likeness of 
the man, still survive, and appear in the silence of eventide, and 
on the tablets of memory, and in the light of morn and noon and 
dewy eve; and being dead, he yet speaks eloquently and in the 
midst of us." 

THE END. , 



